Science Made Cool

Big Red Hawk Nesting, Now Live for Your Viewing Pleasure

A few years ago a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks started nesting on the top of an 80-foot stadium light by the Cornell University athletic fields. Tired of straining upwards with binoculars to see anything, this year the Lab of Ornithology installed a nest-level camera. You can watch the hawks bill and coo (well, actually they sit on their eggs and rip up small mammals, but you know what I mean) on live streaming video. Hatchlings are expected in mid-April.

UPDATE: April 23, 2012 -- The eggs are hatching, just as Ithaca is getting buried under a late spring snowstorm. You can watch a very wet mama bird on the streaming video link, or follow the Twitter stream for @CornellHawks for more updates.

Space Prospectors

Crusty old space prospectors mining the asteroid belt for valuable minerals have been a staple of science fiction since the 1930s. In fiction they tended to fit the stereotype of the Klondike Gold Rush veteran: grizzled, fiercely independent, surviving in a patched-up old spaceship while searching for the one big strike that never comes.

Well, the space prospectors are here, and they're considerably more well-groomed. Planetary Resources, Incorporated is hosting a press conference today at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, where they're going to announce a new company which aims to begin mining near-Earth asteroids for valuable minerals within a decade. Among the backers are Microsoft tycoon and space tourist Charles Simonyi, X-Prize founder and serial space entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, space tycoon Eric Anderson, Google moguls Eric Schmidt and Larry Page, Titanic director James Cameron, and a number of other tech bigwigs.

These are serious people with serious money and serious expertise. If they think there's at least a sporting chance of making money on this venture, I'm inclined to belive them.

So does this mean the old science fictional stereotype will come true? Crusty old prospectors cruising the asteroids? Yes: but they'll be crusty old robots, not humans. If they do become ornery and independent-minded, things can get very interesting indeed . . .

Wind, at Your Fingertips

I haven't bothered to look at a regional newspaper or television weather forecast in years -- why should I, when NOAA can give me a forecast specific to my town in a couple of clicks? And now a project from Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg makes it just as easy to find out how the wind is blowing in my neighborhood. They may say that their wind map -- derived from the hourly surface wind reports of the National Digital Forecast Database -- is more of an art project than a predictive tool, but I find it easier to understand than a static windspeed map. Plus, it's beautiful. (Bonus!)

Tacocopter!

Is America ready for flying robot taco delivery?

To ask the question is to answer it, really. Of course we are!

Sadly, this article about just such a project turns out to be a hoax. Or at least vaporware.

Forget about flying cars. Where's my flying taco robot? I want my flying taco robot now!