In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe was, in fact, expanding — and not static. Once Einstein knew the universe was expanding, he discarded his cosmological constant theory and later called it “the biggest blunder of his life.”

Fast forward 90 years and the world’s most powerful digital camera has photographed the very thing that Einstein felt was the biggest blunder of his life: dark energy.

Another theory, however, suggests that dark energy is a new force and will eventually fade away just as it arose, but that is somewhat beside the point.

The point is, there is a new, totally badass camera that can photograph the affects of dark energy on space and time — and do so from a mountaintop in Chile.

What is Dark Energy?

According to NASA’s Astrophysics division, more is unknown than is known about dark energy. We know it is there because of how it affects the universe’s expansion, but that’s about it. Most scientists currently believe that roughly 70 percent of the Universe is dark energy, 25 percent is dark matter, and the rest — everything we’ve ever observed from Earth — makes up the remaining 5 percent.

Makes ya feel kind of small, eh?

Why is the Dark Energy Camera Significant?

The official press release states:

Eight billion years ago, rays of light from distant galaxies began their long journey to Earth. That ancient starlight has now found its way to a mountaintop in Chile, where the newly constructed Dark Energy Camera, the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created, has captured and recorded it for the first time.

The Dark Energy Camera is the most powerful survey instrument of its kind, and light from over 100,000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away is able to be viewed in each snapshot.

In December, after the camera has been fully tested, scientists in the Dark Energy Survey collaboration will use the new camera to carry out the largest galaxy survey ever undertaken. Over the next five years they will basically create a detailed color map of one-eighth of the sky, discovering and measuring 300 million galaxies, 100,000 galaxy clusters and 4,000 supernovae.

Read more about the Dark Energy Camera and check out the video below for a cool timelapse of the camera’s construction below:

Photo: The Blanco telescope in Chile. Credit: T. Abbott and NOAO/AURA/NSF

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According to the Indiegogo fundraising page, more than 2 billion people still cook indoors over wood-burning fires. These inefficient wood fires contribute to deforestation, climate change and the aforementioned premature deaths.

But how can the PlanetStove help?

The creators of this stove, Dylan Maxwell and Olivier Kolmel, say that the PlanetStove can help both people and the environment in the following ways:

1. Reduce indoor cooking smoke to a minimum.
2. Mitigate airborne soot, which is responsible for 5-10 percent of man-made global warming.
3. Reduce deforestation by increasing stove efficiency; villages reported using roughly 1/3 less wood than with traditional stoves.
4. Sequester carbon (in the form of biochar) within the soil.
5. Improve the soil structure and drought resistance.
6. Improve the financial situation and living conditions of rural populations.

How does the PlanetStove work?

It is a TLUD stove, which stands for “Top-Liti Updraft.” Basically, you light kindling on top of a vertical tube full of densely packed wood. That vertical tube is nested inside a larger vertical tube. The fire on the top heats the wood and resulting hydrogen and carbon monoxide rise toward the top where they meet with oxygenated air drawn through the space between the tubes.

The stove essentially gasifies the wood. The resulting charcoal can then be returned to the earth in the form of biochar — which still contains at least 50 percent of the carbon that was in the original wood.

How can you help?

At the time of this writing, the PlanetStove Indiegogo project has received $4,053 worth of the $25,000 it needs to fund the campaign, with 34 days left remaining.

The lowest level of contribution is $25 and will basically subsidize the cost of a PlanetStove for a family in the developing world. You’ll get a photo of the family that received the stove, as well as a follow up with that family after a year of using the stove. Obviously, other contribution levels are available, so hit up the PlanetStove fundraising page and see if it strikes a chord with your passions.

Main image credit: Novotera

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Not so.

Wireless tech giant Qualcomm acquired innovative New Zealand startup HaloIPT late last year and has announced that they will soon begin testing the new inductive charging technology in London. The company has kept the original name, dubbing the technology the Qualcomm Halo.

According to Think Progress, “San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. recently announced that it has partnered with the automaker Renault for a field trial of its new wireless electric vehicle charging system later this year in London.”

How does the inductive EV charging work?

Wireless electric vehicle charging (WEVC) technology uses magnetic induction to couple power from a base charging unit (BCU) to a vehicle charging unit (VCU). Power is transferred to the VCU pad via magnetic coupling, and is used to charge the vehicle’s batteries. Communication between the VCU and BCU ensures minimal impact on the grid.

The interesting thing is that the charging capability is equal to plug-in charging, does not interfere with other electronics, and does not require precision parking to work effectively.

But why stop at inductive charging at home?

The goal of the trial is test both the technical and the commercial viability of the wireless electric vehicle charging system. One thing is for sure, HaloIPT (and not Qualcomm) has never set their sights merely on static charging pads.

As a matter of fact, as distantly as two years ago HaloIPT was planning on electrifying part of London’s M25 Roadway for testing of dynamic inductive charging. According to Qualcomm’s Halo mini site, the plans for dynamic charging are still in the works. Establishing the WEVC technology at stationary locations is a huge step in building infrastructure, but implementing dynamic inductive charging into roadways would completely eliminate “range anxiety” commonly associated with electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs).

Hey, between solar-energy generating roadways and dynamic inductive EV charging, maybe we have a clean energy existence in our near future after all.

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According to Xinhua News, Hong Kong government scientists announced last Thursday that they had located the supervolcano in southeastern China. The volcano, known as the High Island Supervolcano, spewed forth 1,300 cubic kilometers of ash about 140 million years ago — enough to blanket all of Hong Kong.

Last Thursday’s press release says that the resulting caldera suggests that the original diameter of the High Island Supervolcano spanned a distance of about 18 kilometers (or just over 11 miles).

A handout from Hong Kong’s Geotechnical Engineering Office said that the supervolcanic eruption on China’s southeastern seaboard would have produced a global environmental impact and could be related to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

I don’t know a T-Rex tough enough not to run from a cataclysm like that.

What makes a volcano “super”?

For a volcano to be classified as a “supervolcano,” it has to have the potential to eject more than 1000 cubic kilometers, or 240 cubic miles, of volcanic material. The city of New York, meaning all five boroughs — Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island — is 300 square miles. We’re talking about almost that many cubic miles. In other words, a LOT of volcanic material.

The scope of such an eruption is one thousand times greater than any volcanic eruption seen by modern humans. The power behind such an eruption lies deep within the Earth’s crust, where gargantuan chambers of magma form under the intense 2500 degree Fahrenheit heat rising from the planet’s mantle.

Is an extinct volcano still dangerous?

It’s important to note the difference between extinct and dormant volcanoes — but the determination between the two can be difficult. Volcanoes that no longer have a magma supply are extinct, while dormant volcanoes may still have a magma supply but have not shown activity for a long time.

Scientists have determined the High Island Supervolcano is extinct, and that it poses no risk of erupting again. This means that people living in southeast China (and any lingering dinosaurs) can breathe easy.

Main photo credit: dmourati/Flickr

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But did you know that a blue moon isn’t just a legendary Elvis Presley song (with a quirky scene in the original Grease movie set to it)? It’s actually a meteorological phenomenon. Unfortunately, the name attributed to this phenomenon doesn’t mean that the moon appears to have a blue-ish hue (though sometimes it does).

A blue moon, at least in modern days, is the term given to the second full moon in calendar month. This lunar timing only occurs once every two and a half years or so, and your next chance to catch a blue moon is August 31st, 2012 — next month.

According to Live Science, tomorrow night, August 1st, is the first full moon of the month, with the moon completing its cycle and becoming full again on the last day of the month.

According to Sky and Telescope, the idea that the second full moon in a calendar month is the blue moon is actually incorrect, but they say “trying to correct this (mis)interpretation is like trying to stuff a genie back into its bottle”.

So get out tomorrow night to enjoy the 1st full moon of the month and then enjoy the blue moon on August 31st — and hey, maybe you should even crack open a Blue Moon to enjoy as you gaze into the night sky.

Main photo credit: snappydessy/Flickr

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I recently heard that any given person could be wasting up to a gallon of water with every flush of the toilet, so I decided to test it out. After performing a simple test, I discovered that I was actually wasting more than a gallon with each flush.

I decided to shoot a short video showing how to perform the test yourself, how to fix it, and how to save water in 10 minutes and for about $10.

The culprit is the toilet’s fill valve. The simple solution requires replacing the current fill valve with one that can regulate the fill rate of the water in the bowl and the water in the tank. One quick exchange will have you saving gallons of water and, hence, buckets of money. I used the BlueSource H660 HydroClean fill valve, but there are similar models available.

If you used a toilet 10 times a day and saved a gallon of water with every flush, then you’d be saving 3,650 gallons of water per year for a simple 10 minute fix that cost $10. Something to think about.

Check out the video:

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