The latest issue of DISCOVER magazine has the top 100 science stories of 2006 and the number one spot is taken by renewable energy, which surprises me a bit. I have not seen a single new breakthrough this year on this front. There may have been some improvements on the already existing technologies like wind energy, geo-thermal power, fuel cells, bio-fuel etc., but nothing new.
I do agree with them on what they say about the Tesla motors battery power car-- Tesla Roadster which is the most efficient car today . It is has great looks to go with climate-controlled 50 kilowatt-hour battery pack and the 248-hp electric motor. They are using the Lithium ion battery pack which should help overcome notorious memory problems associated with the Nickel cadmium batteries. But with a $100,000 price tag, who is going to buy it?
Coming back to renewable energy as the top science story. I feel that the awareness about adopting renewable energy resources is definitely the top story of the year and former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary ---AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH on global warming has done a great job in getting across this important message to the masses. Now almost everyone seems to know how fossil fuels are creating havoc by changing the globe weather .but are we willing do something about this now remains a big question?
My top science story is definitely going to be--- the face transplant on Isabelle Dinoire, 38,( who was disfigured when she was attacked by her pet Labrador retriever) by a group of French doctors lead by Dr. Bernard Devauchelle. Her latest pictures are remarkable and what ever scars may have been left on her face are concealed by wonder cosmetics with nano-particles. I am sure Michel Jackson would be one to agree with me and would have been watching this story keenly. Considering the miserable job his plastic surgeons have done on his face thus far, I bet he needs a face transplant. I mean repeated face touch ups have only made him uglier—it is time for him to do a complete face job.
Cell Phones going down the toilet
Can you believe it ---The number of cell phones that are accidentally dropped into the toilet is staggering 7 million (Source; American Standard) every year. No wonder cell phones sales are climbing every year; for example Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 229 million units in the second quarter of 2006.If dropping cell phones down the toilet is one way to lose, I wonder how many other ways you can lose them--- dropping them while going in and out of car, losing them by using them as hurling projectiles, losing them in restaurants and the list can go on and on.
I hope cell phone companies are doing the flush test on these cell phones--- they need to make sure that cell phones have the right contours to flush them down the toilet and save unnecessary trouble for their buyers by blocking toilet drains. I wonder if anybody has thought of starting a project, to study the life after for these cell phones. How they cope with the septic tank environment or who is eating up whom- the microbes or the cell phones?
http://www.teslamotors.com
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