Abstract
Artist's rendering of a space elevator.
Hanging by a thread
At the beginning of Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Charlie takes an elevator ride through the roof of his recently inherited Wonka chocolate factory and into deep space. Brad Edwards's space elevator plans aren't nearly so ambitious. His elevator would only go out about 62,000 miles, reports the July 8 Seattle Times.
NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (motto: “Don't let your preoccupation with reality stifle your imagination”) has given Edwards's company, High Lift Systems, $570,000 to research the possibilities.
The idea is to stretch a bundle of cables made of carbon-fiber nanotubes from a mobile ocean platform to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. Electric lifts, powered by a laser sited on a second platform, would clamp onto the mile-wide bundle and ferry payloads into space.
Edwards, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory staff scientist, proposes siting the mobile platforms in the Pacific Ocean roughly 1,500 kilometers west of the Galapagos Islands to avoid bad weather (lightening, hurricanes, and the like) as well as ocean- and air-bound traffic (Techtv.com, January 31).
While the technology for fabricating carbon nanotubes exists, current nanotubes are short. Very short–measured in microns. High Lift Systems has begun work on producing longer lengths but admits that fabricating suitable nanotubes is one of its greatest challenges.
Russian scientists first proposed the idea of a space elevator in the 1960s, but it was Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction that popularized the concept in his book The Fountains of Paradise. When asked when such devices might actually come into use, he originally said, “Probably about 50 years after everyone quits laughing.”
But that was then, and this is now, and in the April 2001 Scientific American Clarke offered his support for the space project. “When (not if!) the space elevator is built,” he wrote, “the cost of reaching stationary orbit will be virtually zero.”
Zero that is, after an estimated $10 billion to $40 billion in startup costs.
Given financial support and a few breakthrough discoveries, the first thin length of cable could be unfurled from the cargo bay of a space shuttle or a conventional rocket fired into space. The competing forces of gravity and centripetal acceleration would keep the cable taut over a single position. The first strand would be able to support only a few hundred kilograms–enough for climbing platforms (“climbers”) to start ascending into space. These first climbers would add cables to the growing bundle, increasing its strength. Edwards estimates that if one climber ascended every four days, it would take just over two years to form a cable capable of supporting 20,000 kilogram loads. The space shuttle can lift about 24,000 kilograms (53,000 pounds) into space. Powering the climbing platforms would be another neat trick. Each climber would be fitted with solar cells, and lasers would “beam” light to them from the second ocean derrick. The technology to focus laser light over long distances exists, but has not been implemented in this way.
A two-day conference, to discuss funding and the technology in general, was held in Seattle in August and attended by approximately 50 people. Edwards said that if things come together, in the next few years commercial loads, such as sections of space stations and eventually tourists, could be pulled up the cable and catapulted into orbit at a fraction of the current cost (BBC News, August 12).
“Technology is now catching up with science fiction,” he said. “Whoever puts up the first elevator could eventually own space for the next 100 years.”
Your lying eyes
Developers of automated facial recognition systems haven't overcome the technology's main flaws: No one can be recognized unless his face is in a digitized database, and the system is easily duped and overwhelmed. Donning a pair of sunglasses, gaining a few pounds, or growing a beard can all throw facial recognition software into a loop. If you toss it too many targets, the number of “false positives” increases beyond an operator's ability to sift through the data.
But setbacks and failed tests haven't stopped the high priests of perception from trying to devise new ways to try to tell what you are thinking. Fidgety persons beware: The next wave may be targeted at your body language.
Kinesics–the science that tries to assign meaning to non-verbal cues like blushes, shrugs, or eye movements–has been around since the 1950s. Now the CIA wants to teach computers to watch for detailed facial-language clues. After last year's terrorist attacks, the agency commissioned the Salk Institute and Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute to work up software prototypes, which are now being evaluated for accuracy and potential uses. Other security agencies and departments are eager to implement the results.
But what does it mean?
Terrence Sejnowski, a Salk Institute researcher, said that analyzing one minute of an interview can take a trained observer an hour, but that a computer might be able to handle the process in real time. As reported in the August 15 Wall Street Journal, Sejnowski is applying for grants to turn his prototype software into a commercial application to observe psychiatric patients. But he is concerned that in security applications it “could be misused.”
For example, Secant Aviation Security, a New York company founded by Israeli intelligence veterans, is developing hidden systems to pick up stress in travelers' speech patterns as they check in. But could such a system tag people who are simply afraid of flying? And another company, Sarnoff, has developed a program that takes information from multiple cameras to create “tracks” that show the path a person has traveled through a building.
Until the software is ready for prime time, airports are turning to people to handle complex behavior analysis. And what better place to turn than the guy formerly in charge of airport security for Israel? In the wake of September 11, Boston's Logan Airport hired Rafi Ron, former chief of security for the Israeli Airport Authority, to train more than 200 state troopers to watch for the darting eyes and trembling hands of would-be terrorists. In February, Ron told Congress that profiling has been “very successful for the last 32 years” in Israel. He added that even screening 100 percent of the baggage going onto a plane cannot prevent a September 11 type attack.
“The missing element is the human factor and without relating to it we leave the room for future attacks,” he said. “Further, it can be said that the civil rights issue can be controlled and the creation of an operational method for pattern recognition is feasible.”
On March 15 Ron delivered a report to the Massachusetts aviation authority recommending that teams of undercover behavior experts be sent through Logan to single out suspicious travelers for comprehensive security checks and interviews that could take up to an hour.
As for people's civil rights? “The basic civil right is protecting human life, and this is the business we're in,” said Ron (Associated Press).
This kind of talk has civil libertarians concerned over the constitutionality of behavior profiling, especially its possible misuse by police and security personnel. In February, Katie Corrigan, a legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, told Congress that profiling would be ineffective and could lead to discriminatory practices. She said that even profiles that “do not explicitly include race as an element often have the racially discriminatory effect of disproportionately selecting people identifiable by race.”
Others seem to be suggesting that sacrificing a few rights for the greater good is in order. Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said in the same hearing that the Constitution “is not a suicide pact. While protecting core liberties, it is a document that also allows for the accommodation of transient government needs…. Profiling may be an inevitable response to the dangers evident at airports.”
Meltdown
In September, the “Nuclear Renaissance Conference” In Washington, D.C. was disrupted by a lone protester, Jim Riccio of Greenpeace, who brought with him a 150-pound Ice sculpture of a nuclear power plant–which guletly did what Ice does. As reported by Lloyd Grove In the September 11 Washington Post, one attendee, annoyed at Rlcclo's presence, yelled out “I thought we had security at this conference.” “It's about as good as the security at nuclear reactors,” Riccio replied.
The envelope, please
Here's a new line to try on the Internal Revenue Service the next time you get a late notice: I'm afraid of my mail. According to a July report issued by the U.S. Office of Compliance, “handling irradiated mail for substantial periods of time may be the cause, or a contributing cause, of adverse health symptoms reported by a significant number of legislative branch employees.”
An artist's drawing of a mail irradiator.
Since last fall's anthrax letter attacks, congressional mail has been doused with radiation to kill any spores hitching a ride to Capitol offices. Soon after irradiated mail began arriving in January, numerous employees started complaining of “minor and transient symptoms,” reports Steven Milloy, publisher of JunkScience.com (Foxnews.com, July 5).
As any reader of the Bulletin knows, irradiating mail is akin to microwaving it: There's no residual radiation. Too bad Sen. Charles Grass-ley didn't know that before requesting a full investigation.
In response, the Office of Compliance sent out 14,000 surveys to House and Senate employees asking about adverse reactions to handling their mail. Although only 215 employees responded, 51 percent complained of headaches and 32 percent said their skin itched when handling irradiated mail. Other complaints include burning eyes, nausea, rashes, and bloody noses.
Next, Congress called in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Heath, which measured the Capitol air for common non-radiological contaminants that could be on the irradiated mail–such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, ozone, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, toluene, and particulate matter–but they found only levels below those known to cause health problems or nothing at all.
Their conclusion: The symptoms were likely the result of “heightened awareness and resultant employee stress from recent terrorist attacks,” reported Brian Carnell on Skepticism.net (August 30).
Despite this, the case isn't closed. The Office of Compliance wants more research into the mysterious new syndrome.
In Brief
“Hey you”?
Anti-nuclear protesters frequently appear outside Britain's Trident submarine base at Faslane, Scotland. On occasion, lax security has allowed them to sneak onto the base as well. In August, however, two residents of Edinburgh, members of a group called Trident Ploughshares, tried a new tack–they swam out to a submarine, painted signs on its side, and then climbed aboard and rang its bell (Trinity Mirror, August 13). Although the swimmers successfully invaded the base only two weeks after a House of Commons report expressed concern about “lapses in the integrity” of British bases, a Defence Ministry spokesman dismissed the incident by insisting that the intruders were “challenged” (although not apparently apprehended) “before they got to the boat.”
Retroactively secret
The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, or PFIAB, is a group of presidential advisers, some with highly ideologically driven foreign policy objectives. Steven Aftergood's Secrecy News reported in mid-August that the board has recently taken to claiming that the names of its members are secret, available only on a “need to know” basis. Too bad the board didn't tell the White House, though; it listed member names in an October 5, 2001 press release.
Who exactly was the enemy?
The Guardian and BBC Radio 4 revealed in September that as part of a series of experiments from the 1950s to the 1970s, the British government released radioactive gases across miles of English towns and villages in a series of secret trials aimed at tracking the likely dispersal of germ weapons over Britain (The Guardian, September 13). The Defence Ministry insists that the tests were not only harmless, but “vital to the defense of this country.” But British nuclear expert John Large said that although the radio-xenon that was used was not likely to be harmful, because it would have come from the nuclear reactors at the weapons establishment at Harwell, it might have been contaminated with more dangerous materials.
Did you know?
A lot of people claim that the U.S. Army's School of Americas–a.k.a. the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation–at Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Central and South American military men in the use of torture and extortion. Or at least that's what some of the school's training manuals, made public in 1996, seemed to indicate. Over the years, non-violent protesters who trespass at the school have been treated harshly: 71 protesters have now served a total of more than 40 years in federal prison. Of course, these jail terms may not compare with the treatment those arrested by some of the school's graduates have received.
Running faster, not even staying in place
The U.S. coca eradication program in Colombia has cost American taxpayers nearly $2 billion since 1999. Meanwhile, the amount of coca Colombia produces has increased–by 25 percent from 2000 to 2001 alone. According to U.S. estimates, during the same period, cultivation of the coca crop spread from 12 to 22 of the country's 32 provinces (New York Times, September 4).
Lessons in copyright
When a research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology applied for a grant to outfit the “soldier of the future,” they thought it might be nice to add an illustration (Boston Globe, August 28). After MIT won a $50 million award to establish the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, however, it was revealed that the illustrator had actually lifted the look of a Canadian comic book character called “Radix.” The two Canadian brothers who produce the comic are considering a suit for copyright infringement. Meanwhile, in the opinion of MIT lawyer Ann Hammersla, the purloined picture was no big deal. “The proposal was peer-reviewed on its technical merits, and the award was not based on that illustration,” said Hammersla.
Defense v. the environment, continued
Apparently letting up for the moment on its desire to flout environmental rules regarding air and water safety, the Defense Department is now concentrating on exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (Orlando Sentinel, September 4). Raymond F. DuBois, Jr., a deputy undersecretary of defense, said that after September 11, “Mr. and Mrs. America are a little bit more aware of the powers the president executes for combat and how he prepares for combat operations.” Environmental groups disagree; they want Defense to ask for case-by-case rather than blanket exemptions.
Ahead of the curve
Wired News (September 16) reports that the city of Berkeley, California–a long-time “nuclear weapons-free zone”–has declared that it is now a “space-based weapons-free zone” as well. A city council resolution has declared the air space as far as 60 kilometers (37 miles) above the city to be off limits to Star Wars and the ilk.
Be prepared … for what, exactly?
Being a Boy Scout is all about learning practical skills–how to build a camp fire in the rain, how to tie a sheepshank knot, how to use a compass… how nuclear fission works? That's right–one of the 120 merit badges that scouts can earn focuses on learning about atomic energy.
It's not one of the required badges, but its rarity–and the coolness of the patch–makes it all the more desirable. Last year, 5,106 scouts received atomic energy merit badges (about the same number that earned plumbing badges). In comparison, the most popular badge, for first aid, was given out 96,965 times.
Boy Scouts at the North Anna, Virginia, nuclear power plant.
To earn the badge, scouts have to meet a number of requirements. They must demonstrate knowledge of famous figures in the history of atomic energy (Marie Curie, William Roentgen, Niels Bohr, and Lise Meit-ner, to name a few); be able to define relevant terms (fallout, half-life, isotope, and radiation, for example); know the difference between atomic weight and number; draw and color the radiation hazard symbol and explain its purpose; and create labeled drawings of how fission works, as well as how a chain reaction could be started and then stopped. And that's not all. Before the badge is theirs, scouts have to complete three more complicated projects involving things like Geiger counters, electroscopes, and radioisotopes.
Sounds tough, but it's actually not as hard as earning a sailing badge, according to Joe O'Con-nell, a health physics coordinator at Virginia's North Anna nuclear power plant. He'd know, because as a volunteer merit badge counselor he helps interested troops in his area earn atomic energy badges. Since 1992, Dominion Energy's North Anna employees have volunteered their time to hold weekend programs, usually twice a year, at the station.
At night, troops camp out on an island adjacent to the nuclear plant; during the day, they learn how it operates. In a simulated control room used for employee training, scouts learn about equipment and protective yellow clothing. Some get to dress up in the yellow suits, and the volunteers explain ways to avoid contamination transfer–such as keeping your hands away from your face. They learn to use radiation monitors to find hidden radiation sources and estimate their radioactivity, and are given an outdoor tour of the grounds. At the end of the program, scouts take a test. If they pass, and most do, they get their badges.
Awards
The Bulletin would like to thank the Nuclear-Free Future Foundation, which in October presented the magazine with an award in special recognition of its long-time service as “the world's most reliable source of news and information about global security and the nuclear threat.”
In late September, Publisher Stephen I. Schwartz received a Project Censored award for his July/August 2001 article, “The New-Nuke Chorus Tunes Up,” which was selected as the sixth most under-reported story of the year.
In one of the activities, teams of boys must work together using a contraption of four ropes attached to an expandable tube to pick up and then reposition objects without touching them. The game teaches scouts how to deal with radioactive sources, said O'Connell.
“We've done it as a race,” he said, “because the quicker you do something, the less dose you'll get.”
O'Connell estimates that over the program's 10-year history, 3,000-4,000 Boy Scouts have earned atomic energy badges at North Anna. But because of last year's terror attacks, none passed through the program in 2002.
“The point of the program is that scouts come on site and get to see the power plant–get the experience of seeing the domes and the turbines,” said Steven Beneke, a planning specialist at North Anna and a volunteer coordinator. “After September 11, we weren't allowed to bring tours into the station. We felt we couldn't put on a quality program and had to cancel.” It remained on hiatus this year while security concerns were resolved, but in 2003 the North Anna volunteers hope to host three sessions, Beneke said.
But it's not all about the badge. O'Connell sees the scouts as future leaders and likes giving them a new perspective on nuclear energy. “They may have misconceptions of what nuclear power is all about,” he said. “We make them ambassadors for the future, knowing that nuclear power isn't all that bad.”
It seems to work. “I think doing this has given me a whole new way to look at [nuclear power],” Matt Johnson, a 15-year-old who participated in the May 2001 program, told the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (May 7, 2001). “I thought it was unsafe, but really it's not.”