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Article Tags: CO2 Level, YouTube

Isolated for 42 days in chambers of ambient and elevated CO2 concentrations, we (C02 Science) periodically document the growth of cowpea plants (Vigna unguiculata) via time-lapse photography.

Source: sppiblog.org

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The upshot of all of the Apple news/hype/chatter last week was that I heard from a lot of Android fans. A LOT of you. Some of you wanted to know if I thought iPad was any good. Others of you wanted me to know how much you hate Apple – the company, the products, and the users. Most of you fell somewhere in between.

You all got me thinking about Android. Not about whether it’s “better” or “worse” than iPhone or any other mobile OS, but about its future. 

We’re Number Four!

According to the most recent comScore reports, BlackBerry still leads the US smartphone market with 42.1% of the subscribers. Apple is second with 25.4%, and Google is fourth (behind Microsoft) with 9.0%. The thing about Google’s share, though, is that it more than doubled over the past three months while BlackBerry and Apple more or less held steady (and Microsoft lost 4%). Google rose from a 3.8% share in November 2009 to 9% as of February 2010, thanks in large part to the success of Verizon’s Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris.

So what does Google do now to close the gap on BlackBerry and Apple (Microsoft is going to lose more ground at least until Windows Phone 7 ships this Fall)?

1. Get another Killer Phone to Market

Google got a healthy boost this past Fall and Winter when the first Android devices came to Verizon. But with Droid’s marketing campaign (thankfully) fading out and Droid Eris officially marked End of Life, Google needs another high-profile Android phone on US retail shelves. And, frankly, they need it on AT&T and/or Verizon shelves – T-Mobile and Sprint just don’t have the subscriber base right now to really push the needle when it comes to Android’s market share. 

Nexus One ain’t gonna do it, at least not so long as Google remains hell-bent on self-sabotaging the device by marketing, selling and supporting it themselves. Between mounting hardware and service complaints and the sheer fact that you never, ever see an N1 when you walk into a cell phone, this thing just isn’t selling like a “superphone” should. And Motorola’s Backflip won’t do it either, at least not so long as AT&T remains hell-bent on removing every trace of Google from the thing before putting it in the same room as their iPhone lineup.

Enter the HTC Incredible, all but certain to launch on Verizon by the end of this month. Incredible will be a super-er version of Nexus One, complete with a user interface that will actually catch shoppers’ eyes in stores (HTC Sense is flashier than stock Android), a new optical trackball, and bumped up camera specs. Assuming it works as it should and is priced decently, Incredible should have the looks, specs, and flair to add some new subscribers to Verizon and Google’s head count.

One phone can’t do it all by itself (apologies to Apple/AT&T, of course), but it’s incredibly important for Google’s momentum to have at least one new(ish), eye-catching, high-profile device on retail shelves at all times. Droid’s been out long enough – and Sprint and T-Mo are small enough – that Google needs Verizon to get a sexy new Android phone to market now. Incredible is it, and it can’t come soon enough.

Next Up

#2: Serve Up Some FroYo

There is a long-standing myth that before the Enlightenment, all the experiences and behaviours we would now classify as madness were thought to be due to demonic possession.

This idea has been comprehensively debunked and it is now clear that both of these concepts have run side-by-side and medieval courts often went to great lengths to try and distinguish the two ‘states’.

I’ve just read a fascinating article about ‘Demonology, Neurology, and Medicine in Edwardian Britain’ from the Bulletin of the History of Medicine that showed that this tendency continued well into the modern age.

Evangelical demonologists, some of them qualified doctors, incorporated medical advances into their theories – even using the dramatic discoveries of the ‘father of neurology’, John Hughlings Jackson, as a way of better ‘explaining’ our susceptibility to malign influence:

The Jacksonian hierarchy of higher conscious levels, the sensory midbrain, and the lower reflex centers was mapped onto the Pauline division between spirit, soul, and flesh and the psychological division between the supraliminal, the subliminal, and the body (cf. 1 Thess. 5:23 and Heb. 4:12). As Penn-Lewis argued, the lower nervous centers of the midbrain and the medulla could be seen as corresponding to habit and nature, “the law of the organs,” which frustrated man’s attempt to serve God.

This association of the soul with unconscious animal instincts revealed its vulnerability to the possibility of demonic infection. Indeed, many late-Victorian authors had argued that the newly discovered subconscious or unconscious mind provided the perfect medium for demonic activity: connected in psychology and literature to dreams, instincts, passions, and madness, it was seen as a gaping wound in the human personality through which invasive agents could undermine their hosts. Certainly many demonologists believed that invading spirits possessed a natural appetite for nervous tissue as they sought to recapture the nourishing somatic form they had lost.

This is a common pattern, of course. Carl Sagan’s book famously described science as “a Candle in the Dark” against a “Demon-Haunted World” but less attention is paid to the fact that every new illumination casts a whole new set of shadows for people to misinterpret.

Link to PubMed entry for demonology and neurology article.

Here’s a Photoshop Contest I shouldn’t have done: using staff photos as source material. You really dug deep for some of these, you bastards. More »

We have all seen e-Ink screens, but Qualcomm’s Mirasol technology is another competitor in the super-low power display technology arena, and unlike e-ink the display, which works via reflected light, has a fast enough refresh rate to support video.

Qualcomm has now announced they are ready to enter volume production this year in a version suitable for tablet PCs and e-readers. The 5.7-inch Mirasol displays will offer XGA (1024 x 768 pixel) resolution, video at up to 30 frames per second, and extremely low power consumption, according to Qualcomm.

The technology was first shown of as a secondary screen on a Windows Mobile smartphone by Inventec.

Read more about the technology at WindowsforDevices here, video from Tweaktown.com

Wade Roush wrote:

It seems only fitting that the creators of one of the most popular children’s toys in history would want to honor the creator of the most successful children’s computer in history.

Today the Denmark-based Lego Group, of plastic brick fame, announced that it has awarded its $100,000 Lego Prize to Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab and the One Laptop Per Child Foundation.

The company said that the prize, which it created in 1985, was being awarded to Negroponte “for his passionate vision of one laptop per child and his ability to make his vision come alive.” Nearly 2 million XO Laptops built by the foundation have been distributed to children in 40 countries.

“In the Lego Group, we see children as our role models,” Lego owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen said in a statement. “Children look at the world with open eyes, unconstrained by the past and willing to ask why? and what if? By connecting them and enabling them to learn and develop, OLPC creates totally new possibilities and a hope for a much brighter future for the world.”

Reached by Xconomy in Copenhagen, where he will receive the prize at today’s Lego Idea Conference, Negroponte said the most important meaning of the prize was that “Both OLPC and Lego stand for learning by playing.”

Negroponte’s association with the Lego Group is a longstanding one: the company was one of the earliest sponsors of the Media Lab, where researchers’ offices are perennially littered with Lego bricks. “We are celebrating our 26th year of collaboration with Lego,” Negroponte says, so visiting Copenghagen to pick up the award “may be more like [being with] family.”

I asked Negroponte how the prize helps to validate OLPC’s mission of supplying low-cost laptops to children in developing countries. “There is not much left to validate any more,” he replied, via e-mail. “The only open question is how to pay for OLPC. The full cost of acquisition and ownership is $1 per week per child.”

Negroponte said he doesn’t have any plans so far for using the prize money. The last person to receive the Lego Prize was New Hampshire-based inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, in 2008.

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UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

Could a solar-powered dirigible be the cargo ship of our peak-oil, carbon-constrained future? If the inventor of the patent pending  High Speed Solar Airship is correct, the future of long haul cargo combines solar powered transmission married to centuries-old dirigible technology.

Like the old blimp, a gas envelope lifts the airship from sea level to its cruising altitude. Unlike the old blimp, this new solar blimp would cruise at a much higher altitude: at 30,000 feet.

The HSSA would be powered by 24,000 square feet of thin-film  solar cells in an integrated application on top of the balloon – for 62.7 KW of rated power. However,  that rating would be if it was on earth.

Because of the altitude, there would also be a 30% efficiency boost of the solar power once aloft, just from the freezing cold at that altitude. In addition, because the height is well above cloud levels; sunlight is unobstructed. This would provide sun for well over the maximum earthbound solar access of up to 8 hours a day.

Thinner air at that height also means faster speeds.The 320 foot long airship could reach daytime speeds of 182 MPH utilizing a 96 MPH average Jet Stream wind speed, and even continue flying at night with a speed of 165 MPH, carrying 60 tons of cargo, and 2 million cubic feet of helium.
(more…)

Si creías que el coche eléctrico es algo nuevo te equivocas, porque ha habido (y se han vendido) coches eléctricos desde los mismos inicios del siglo pasado. Pero en los años setentas, se retomó el desarrollo de varios modelos eléctricos ideados apresuradamente para ser la solución a la crisis petrolera declarada en 1973.

Uno de ellos fue este extraño ESB/Exide Battery Sundancer, construido en EEUU, con la participación de la empresa de baterías Exide. Tenía un motor eléctrico de 8 caballos y usaba como fuente de energía doce baterías de 6 voltios. Poseía la disposición de cabina como la de un avión caza, característica de esos años, cuando se quería mostrar algo realmente futurista.

Claro que la forma del coche deja mucho que desear con la forma de triángulo que tenía, además del tamaño, muy poco apto para circular por las calles, antes de ser aplastado por un camión. El sistema de carga era el convencional, conectado a un enchufe eléctrico; como se ve, nada tan sofisticado como postes de recarga dedicados, en 1973.

Fotos | Flickr

Apache Software Foundation has recently announced the release of the Apache Cassandra Version 0.6. Apache Cassandra is a leading Open Source, NoSQL distributed database management system.

Cassandra is best described as,

Apache Cassandra is an advanced, second-generation “NoSQL” distributed data store that has a shared-nothing architecture. The Cassandra decentralized model provides massive scalability, and is highly available with no single point of failure even under the worst scenarios.

Clearly, it is a NoSQL database system and has a decentralized model making all the distributed components participating equally and eliminating the need of a single management point. This makes it reliable and prevents failures.

Cassandra is widely popular and is used in services like Cisco WebEx, Cloudkick, Digg, Facebook, Rackspace, Reddit, and Twitter. Facebook is an integral part in the development of Cassandra.

Chris Goffinet, Performance and Availability Architect of Digg commented on this release saying,

Digg is very excited to see Cassandra mature in the last year and graduate to a top-level Apache project. Cassandra is powering our next generation infrastructure, and allowing us to run in an environment that demands data access in datacenters around the world.

The new features in the version 0.6 are mainly speed centric. There is a 30% speed improvement in speed. Another feature is the Integrated Row Cache. This eliminates any need for an external caching layer. This makes the implementation and deployment a lot simpler.

The new version of Cassandra brings good news in times when Internet users and website loads are increasing tenfold.

Download Cassandra at http://cassandra.apache.org

Don’t miss these Related Posts:

• Facebook Joins Sponsor List for Apache Software Foundation
• Panic Attack: Restarting Apache Forcefully [Webmaster Tips]
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• GRUB2: Version 1.98 Release
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Join Techie Buzz on Your Favorite Social Networking Sites

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Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Ford

Questions, comments, snide remarks? Please, tell us what’s on your mind by filling out a form and dropping it in the suggestion box on your wait out the door. While such items may be rather common at certain retail establishments, finding such a direct line to the people that run America’s largest automotive companies… well, that’s just a new idea entirely, no?

Today at the SAE World Congress, Mark Fields, Ford president of the Americas, announced just such a program, which includes a new web portal that allows consumers to leave suggestions for the Ford Motor Company and even lets other users log in and rate the submitted ideas. Currently at the top? A suggestion to bring the ECOnetic diesel engines to America. Agree? Click here to let Ford know what you think.

We’ll throw a vote in the direction of more diesels in America any day of the week. And as long as we’ve Ford’s attention, how about offering rally-spec Focus hatchbacks in the States? We’d also be more than happy to see a Super High Output version of the Fusion, complete with the 365-horsepower EcoBoost engine and all-wheel drive system from the Taurus SHO. Oh, and just one more thing… nice work on the SVT Raptor. Click past the break for the complete press release.

[Source: Ford]

Continue reading Ford creates suggestion box for consumers… so what do you want?

Ford creates suggestion box for consumers… so what do you want? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article Tags: Joseph A Olson

Non Science Nonsense

The problem with insatiable greed is that it is….insatiable. There exist among us a group of mega-wealthy megalomaniacs, who have a lust for power that knows no bounds. The world is their monopoly game and their fellow humans are mere place chips to be pushed and shredded for their delight. These demonic demigods have been consolidating their power for centuries and have set their ‘carbon control trap’ to leverage their complete planetary domination.

The East Anglia Event Horizon, on Nov 19, 2009 was a watershed moment in scientific and human history. The hacked Hadley emails pulled the curtain on the greatest FRAUD ever perpetrated on the public. The post industrial monopoly playing pump and dump syndicate made two tactical errors. First, that their well-woven web would not be prematurely disclosed.

The second error was that science was just another commodity that could be pumped and dumped with the same ease as a credit default swap, a derivative or a hedge fund. True scientists are the most objective, most informed and most moral sub-set in the entire human population. Despite two decades of government and Wall Street propaganda, the failed hypothesis of human caused climate change was still totally transparent.

Hadley huckster, Phil Jones stated that the “published emails do not read well”, but in fact they read quite well. The Hadley emails show the level of manipulation, coordination and concealment necessary to foist a world class fraud. Part of that manipulation involved the peer review process and the presumed neutral presenters of science facts, the peer review journals.

Download PDF file to read latest essay from Joseph A Olson, PE

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File attachment: NonScienceNonsense.pdf
  

Plink- A U.K. based visual search app (about the same idea of Google Goggles) has been bought by Google for an undisclosed amount. PlinkArt won last December in the Android Developer Challange. PlinkArt allows you to use your camera to take pictures to identify paintings and artwork.

"The move is part of Google’s new initiative to acquire one company per month in order to improve and expand its line of services."

Why buy? Take a look back at Google Voice, which Google bought back when it was GrandCentral. Now Google’s bought Gizmo5, and Google Voice reportedly is building on that platform, too. [Boy Genius Report]

Nigerian born-Benin raised king of bling maker, Chris Aire is unstoppable still crafting some of the most well crafted expensive pieces of jewelleries, for some of the most great names in the world, politicians, Oscar winners, movie stars, Grammy winners and much more.

Recently Chris showcased his new limited-edition glamour collection, which is inspired by the 1930’s-1940’s Hollywood glamour as well as Nigeria, his homeland. This collection caterers to all needs, from pendants, earrings, necklaces, brooches and cuff links all made with golds and gemstones farmed in different regions of Nigeria.

Gotta love this man’s tasteful creations, pricey but worth every cent.

For more on Chris Aire, visit www.chrisaire.com

Man, I can’t remember any phone in recent history for which details and pics have leaked as frequently as they have for the myTouch Slide. This thing’s not even official yet, but we know more about it than a celebrity stalker knows about their stalkee’s underwear drawer.

The latest bit of knowledge, added just today: color variations.

The lads over at CellPhoneSignal dug up the shots above, claiming that they’ll be some of T-Mobile’s own official product shots. Unless there’s some sort of Photoshop trickery going on here (and we’ve got no reason to believe there is), it looks like the myTouch slide will be offered up in hues of Red/Black, All Black, and White.

If you can turn the sound up at your office, you might want to check out the below livestream of Nouriel Roubini, Chris Whalen and others debating the deflation question in a debate hosted by the American Enterprise Institute. Use the comments to narrate the blow by blow.

Join the conversation about this story »

(Photo: Getty Images)

Looking to make some greener choices in your daily life, but
don’t know where to start or how to take the next step? You’re not alone. It
can be hard to know what will really make a difference.

Besides the prospect of having to completely revamp your
lifestyle or spend a lot of cash on “going green” can seem daunting. Luckily,
such drastic steps are completely unnecessary.

There are plenty of simple steps you can make that will have
a positive impact on the planet (and in most cases are better for your health
and your pocketbook). Focus your time and money on things
that will really make a difference instead of sweating the small stuff or
feeling like there’s no point in making any change unless you take a huge leap.

Here are things you DON’T
have to do:

Always buy organic.
Instead focus on buying what’s in season and local for produce that tastes
better, is more nutritious, and doesn’t have to travel thousands of miles to
reach your table. Find out what’s
in season where you live right now. Search for local
farmers markets or visit LocalHarvest. 

If you can afford to buy organic,
then spend your money on the fruits and veggies that tend to have the
most pesticide residues such as peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, and
nectarines. You can skip organic versions of onion, avocado, sweet corn,
pineapple, mango, and
others since they’re typically light on pesticide residues.   

One thing we all could do (whether we care about creating a
more sustainable lifestyle or not) is to try
not to waste food. If every American were to reduce
their food waste by 25%, it would have a big impact on greenhouse gas
emissions (not to mention your budget), according to a recent Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) report. 

Go vegetarian. Instead
focus on consuming
less meat and dairy products. How? Smaller portions. Stop eating meat one day a week. Don’t eat meat at
every meal. Anything goes. The kind of meat you choose is also important. Red
meat is
harder on the planet than poultry and pork. The NRDC says that swapping
red meat for poultry and skipping dairy twice a week are two relatively
painless ways to make a big difference. It’s also healthier and easier on your
wallet.

Buy green products.
Instead focus on buying less stuff. It’s tempting to think that purchasing a
bunch of “eco-friendly” products is the best way to be supportive of the
environment. But resources are used to make, package, ship, and ultimately
dispose of all products, green or not. When you do have to buy new, then of
course it’s best to choose products with sustainable attributes such as those
that are energy efficient, are made of recycled or recyclable materials, or
have minimal packaging if you can. But first try prolonging
the life of what you already own, borrowing or renting
something you’ll use infrequently, swap
what you no longer need, or buy a used product.   

Buy a hybrid. Instead
take good care of the car you already own and don’t idle. We know you’ve heard
it before, but if everyone made these simple steps it would have a measurable
impact on global warming emissions. Better yet, figure out a way to carpool
two times a week or telecommute
one day a week if you can. When it’s time to buy a car, choose the
most fuel-efficient car in the class of car you need. Some smaller cars not
only rival hybrids
when it comes to fuel efficiency, but also have lower price tags. 

Invest in solar
panels. Instead buy green power
from your local utility. An increasing number of consumers have the option to
buy electricity from renewable sources, such as wind or hydro, from their
electricity supplier or another utility. Ask your utility if they offer a
green pricing program or click
this map to see if it’s available in your state. You’ll have to pay a small
premium each month for the company to use renewable energy or develop sources
of it, but it’s a lot cheaper than slapping solar panels on your roof.

Better yet, take steps to use
less energy around your house. Some ideas of small
changes that can add up to big savings: Replace six incandescent bulbs with
CFLs, use a programmable
thermostat, set computer
to hibernate mode, switch
off unused lights, seal leaks, insulate your attic, wash you clothes in
cold water.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question
or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book,
Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!
Shopping and Amazon.com.

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

As I have already argued, I believe the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review is a significant achievement — in a way that critics and some surprising advocates don’t quite grasp yet. Because everyone is focusing on the details — this caveat, that compromise — the broader shift in how we talk about the role of nuclear weapons is going unremarked.

With that ritual disclaimer, I am planning a series of posts on the details. After all, this is Arms Control Wonk. I am ending each post with an arbitrary grade, since I’ve been doing a little of that lately for real. It is a conceit, I admit; but a harmless one, I would argue.

Transparency

Following President Obama’s commitment to the most open and transparent Administration in history, the Nuclear Posture Review process was largely just that — open and transparent. I can’t recall all the meetings I attended with senior government officials, including those infamous DOD round tables. (No, the tables were not round. One was, in fact, an odd V-shape.)

As a result, the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review is, as expected, an entirely unclassified document. That is a major accomplishment — the 1994 Nuclear Posture Review was really just a set of slides and the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review leaked in the worst possible way. (The sanitized version in the 2002 ADR drew little or no comment.)

So, kudos to the Obama Administration for writing an entirely unclassified Nuclear Posture Review. Whether there is a classified appendix or classified follow-on studies doesn’t really matter, the document stands alone as an unclassified statement. As Cheryl Rofer noted, “It is a message that this administration thinks that accountability is important and intends to stand by its words.” That’s a good thing.

So, the Obama Administration was heading toward an A+ for transparency — until the last minute.

Admiral Dennis Blair — the presumably soon to be former Director of National Intelligence — succeeded in killing a very sensible proposal to declassify aggregate stockpile numbers on the grounds that nuclear aspirants might learn something. This is a long-standing Arms Control Wonk pet rock. There is no reason this information should remain classified.

The argument, however, was the would-be nuclear nations might divide the amount of plutonium by the size of the stockpile and discover that, shock!, the IAEA significant quantity of plutonium (8 kilograms) is too high.

No kidding.

That 4 kilograms of plutonium is enough to make a nuclear weapon is an unclassified fact. For some strange reason, the average mass of plutonium per warhead for the stockpile as a whole remains classified.

So, as a result, when then-Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman in 2007 announced that he was declaring excess another 9 metric tons of plutonium (from the 46.8 metric tons
declared in the mid-1990s), the Administration divided by 8 to claim it was enough for more than 1,100 nuclear weapons. It was a lot more than that. (The Administration had cut the size of the stockpile in half, though not all the material was declared excess).

This is an odd sort of secrecy. We already know that the START negotiations put the United States on a glide path to 11,100 warheads about the same time that the United States declared a corresponding plutonium stockpile of 46.8 metric tons (excluding weapons to be dismantled). In other words, about 4.2 kilograms per warhead.

Now, my guess is that nuclear scientists in North Korea are probably going to want to do their own calculation. Oh, wait, the North Koreans already claimed their first nuclear test used 2 kilograms of plutonium. Hmmm, what information are we protecting again?

I understand the intelligence community is now doing a red-team analysis to see what harm might come of declassifying the stockpile number.

I think Denny Blair, should chillax. I gather virtually everyone else, including Tom D’Agostino, were in fact committed to declassifying basic data about the stockpile.

In any event, the stockpile data does not need to be in the NPR document — it could easily be done in subsequent release prior to, say, May. Yes, May would be good.

Final Grade: Incomplete

Update | 3:46 pm James Acton notes that the State Department just released a fact sheet in which they divide by 4, not 8:

– By updating the 2000 Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA), each country will proceed to complete and operate facilities that will dispose of at least 34 metric tons of this plutonium by using it as fuel in civil power reactors to produce electricity.

– Combined, this represents enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons.

34,000 × 2 ÷ 17,000 = 4. Of course, that 4 kilograms is enough for a bomb is unclassified. Whether we do or not, shhh!

LAist blogger Elise Thompson has created a map of several popular dim sum eateries in Chinatown.

Thompson discusses what’s good about each place, offers options for parking or other transportation and asks readers to comment on (or add to) the map:

"One of the best ways to enjoy dim sum is on the move. It is ideal street food. Walking around shopping for paper lanterns, Snap Pops and Chinese herbs as you wander from one dim sum deli to the next makes for a perfect late morning or early afternoon."

Artist explains Koreatown statue: Curbed LA has posted a great e-mail from artist Bobbie Carlyle explaining the purpose of a bronze statue on Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown:

"It is not known who was the original sculptor, and we have only a few dark postcards and snapshots showing a female nude with billowing cape standing atop a wave… I was commissioned by LAUSD to recreate the sculpture."

Grand Prix preparations: The Long Beach Press-Telegram has a photo and video gallery of preparations for the Grand Prix.

— Anthony Pesce

Have some news for Linking L.A.? Contact Times reporter Anthony Pesce.

Astronomers keep turning up new exoplanets, and as the count rises, they keep edging closer to finding worlds like our own pale blue dot. Astronomer Jay Farihi thinks Earth-like worlds might be even more common in the universe than previously expected, based on evidence from rocky planets few astronomers are studying: The ones that don’t exist anymore.

Farihi research subjects are white dwarfs. In our galaxy, about 90 percent of stars will end their lives in this incredibly dense state once the star sheds its outer material and only the core remains. This is the fate of our sun. White dwarfs usually have atmospheres composed of the light elements helium and hydrogen, as the heavy elements have settled to the core. But about 20 percent of white dwarfs are different, showing heavy elements—what astronomers call “metals”—in their atmospheres. For decades, astronomers attributed this metallic pollution to the interstellar medium, the thin gas that permeates the space between stars. The idea was that white dwarfs were old stars that had been on several orbits around the Milky Way and had picked up bits of the interstellar medium as they went around [Space.com]. But Farihi thinks those elements are evidence of something else.

His hypothesis: the heavy elements came not from the interstellar medium, but rather from the remains of rocky planets that once orbited the stars back in their younger days. For a study he presented at the Royal Astronomical Society meeting in Scotland this week, he looked at 146 white dwarfs that showed calcium pollution in their atmosphere, and which haven’t hung around near the interstellar medium anytime in the recent past. If the heavy elements in these stars had come from the medium, he argues, it would’ve sunk to the core long ago—it wouldn’t be dancing around with the light elements in the upper atmosphere. Ruling out the interstellar medium, Farihi says there are two possibilities: the debris could come from an asteroid belt similar to our own, which essential represents a planet that didn’t form, or the pieces of a shattered planet [Space.com].

If he’s right it could be further evidence that rocky planets are rather common around stars like our sun. The proportion could be even greater than 20 per cent, as some planetary systems might be entirely destroyed and leave no trace rather than leaving behind a debris ring to pollute their parent star [New Scientist].

Farihi also argues that white dwarfs could hold secrets about long-gone watery planets, too. He saw a lot of planets with atmospheres of nearly pure helium. But atmospheres that showed hydrogen traces also tended to contain the heavier elements. If the two are connected, he surmises, then the hydrogen would have come on board the same rocks as the metals, and that means the rocks could have carried water as well.

Related Content:
DISCOVER: Burnout, a preview of the sun’s death
DISCOVER: Sliced: Inside a Supernova
DISCOVER: One Spectacular Stellar Death
80beats: Detoured Light from Tycho’s Supernova Finally Makes It To Earth

Image: NASA / Casey Reed