The Future is Now

Sometimes you read a book so powerful, so wise that you feel the duty of spreading the author's words and contribute to a better world.  Michio Kaku's Physics of the Future is a must-read in the night stand of every leader in the planet, every decision maker, everyone with power to influence societies with high decisions.  Actually, I will rephrase this: it should be part of every school curriculum.

If we talk about the future, we talk about the next generation which is going to inherit the very complicated mission of bringing mankind from a Type 0 civilization to a Type I civilization.  A type I civilization is planetary, it controls all sources of energy of the planet and might be able to tame and modify the weather.  This civilization has an incredible life span and enjoys technologies that we could only dream about when we were kids.

We will live in a world where energy is cheap and abundant, where computers are everywhere to assist us in our daily duties, from our clothing to the walls of our houses.  Information will not be only at the palm of your hands, but in front of your eyes.

Nowadays, we are in the transition from Type 0 to Type I and this is the most dangerous moment in history of humanity.  This is because we still have all the savagery, all the fundamentalism, racism and intolerance that marked us through our barbaric stage, yet we have enough destructive power to eradicate ourselves from Earth, thanks to the same advances in technology that have brought us to the top of this planet's evolutionary table.  If knowledge is power, information is the currency and we live in an age where it can be accessed immediately and anywhere.  Anyone can access online data about how to build a nuclear weapon, or where to find all materials needed for it.  In these upcoming times where information will be abundant, the only force that oppose the chaos is wisdom.

Kaku defines wisdom as the ability to identify the crucial issues of our time, analyze them from many different points of view and perspectives, and then choose the one that carries out some noble goal and principle.  As he points, unlike information, wisdom cannot be dispersed via blogs and internet chatter.  It comes from reasoned and informed democratic debate from opposing sides.

George Bernard Shaw once said: "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."  The Internet is an ally of democratic freedom, allowing people to access information that centuries ago would be controlled by some local government in order to keep their dictatorship's hegemony.  Now, youngsters have the power and responsibility of choosing wisely, of deciding how far to take this technology that can change the world, and in what directions it must develop.  This promising generation must be educated overall, must be an informed electorate, but we run into one problem.  How to do that with a dysfunctional and outmoded educational system?

Sir Ken Robinson warned us with a short question on his memorable speech at TED's conference in 2006: "Do Schools kill creativity?"  If the leaders of tomorrow must have common sense, ability of thinking creatively and be problem-solvers, how to develop them in times like these?  Why are we leveling our kids by the bottom and rewarding mediocrity when the great work should be done in those years prior to their academic life?  Let's not be complacent with a wasteful attitude; let's not try to tell them what to do, but help them to develop their way.  We all are responsible for changing the present, we all are parents of the kids of the future; we are the role models of the men and women who will set the destiny our species.  Thousands of generations have lived and died to pass their genes so you could be here today, and you have this weight on your shoulders.

Robinson also said: " I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth, for a particular commodity, and for the future, it won’t serve us.

We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children."

. . . . .

What are you going to do today?

To Be or Not to Be... Immortal

picture by Lauren Burgess
Have you ever heard the tale of Phineas Gage?  I have read about it in psychology.about.com by Kendra Cherry, and it made me think.

In 1848, a young man named Phineas Gage suffered a traumatic brain injury that astonished doctors and continues to fascinate scientists today.

On September 13, 1848, the then 25-year-old Gage was working as the foreman of a crew preparing a railroad bed near Cavendish, Vermont.  He was using an iron tamping rod to pack explosive powder into a hole.  Unfortunately, the powder detonated, sending the 43 inch long and 1.25 inch diameter rod hurtling upward. The rod penetrated Gage's left cheek, tore through his brain, and exited his skull before reportedly landing some 80 feet away.  Shockingly, Gage not only survived the initial injury but was able to speak and walk to a nearby cart so he could be taken into town to be seen by a doctor, Dr. Edward H. Williams.

Soon after, Dr. John Martyn Harlow, took over the case. It is through Harlow's observations of the injury and his later descriptions of Gage's mental changes that provide much of the primary information that we now know about the case.

In the months that followed, Gage returned to his parent's home in New Hampshire to recuperate.  Unable to return to his railroad job, Gage held a series of jobs including work in a livery stable, a stagecoach driver in Chile and farm work in California.  Popular reports of Gage often depict him as a hardworking, pleasant man prior to the accident.  Post-accident, these reports describe him as a changed man, suggesting that the injury had transformed him into a surly, aggressive drunkard who was unable to hold down a job.

Since there is little direct evidence of the exact extent of Gage's injuries aside from Harlow's report, it is difficult to know exactly how severely his brain was damaged. Harlow's accounts suggest that the injury did lead to a loss of social inhibition, leading Gage to behave in ways that were seen as inappropriate.

In 1968, Harlow presented the first account of the changes in Gage's behavior following the accident:

"The equilibrium or balance, so to speak, between his intellectual faculties and animal propensities, seems to have been destroyed. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operations, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. A child in his intellectual capacity and manifestations, he has the animal passions of a strong man. Previous to his injury, although untrained in the schools, he possessed a well-balanced mind, and was looked upon by those who knew him as a shrewd, smart businessman, very energetic and persistent in executing all his plans of operation. In this regard his mind was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was 'no longer Gage.'"

All that you can read at Kendra’s blog, but Phineas’ tale is not what I wanted to talk about.

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a philosopher who believed in free will.  According to him, a person consists of two ingredients, a body and a soul.  While bodies are like machines made of matter and are subject to the laws of science, souls are immortals and the origin of free will.  We have to understand that it was in an age when mankind had to feel special about our position in the universe compared to all other living beings – we are better than animals and anything else (oh, maybe that still sounds familiar…?)  That is the base for, I think, most of the religions known to man.  We have souls – we are responsible for our decisions – our afterlife depends on how we live this life.  Basically, if you’re a good person you are going to seize the fruits of your behavior.  Now, I understand, someone has either a good or a bad soul and, therefore, tends to be either good or bad, morally speaking.  If our bodies are merely temples of the soul, our brains should not define our character.  So, what happens in a case like Phineas Gage’s?

There are two options.  First: the brain has important influence in our behavior in the way the soul connects to the physical world.  Second: our behavior is entirely defined by how our brain works, what means we are determined by matter – atoms together in the right combination, those forming cells and electric impulses – and possibly have no souls.

Where does morality stand?  In the first scenario, how do we know if someone is naturally good?  What would be the method to identify who deserves to go to Heaven or Hell, reborn as a king or as a cockroach?  Would that be fair if we are confined in our bodies and our judgment relies on our brain capacity, like a race between a Ferrari and a bicycle with, maybe, equally good drivers?  Do we get our brains at random or there are some criteria to determine who deserves which?  If so, how can that be fair?  If there is some superior force who decides the rules of morality, how can that be fair?

The second case scenario is simple; we are determined by chemical reactions, laws of physics and mere chance.  Doesn’t that make you feel special?

Lighting Our Way

Universities and institutions all around the world are researching about different aspects and applications for something so common, but so necessary in our lives that most of the people would not even notice it’s there: light.  With all the advances in science and technology, light is being used in vary fields, such as medicine, communications and weaponry, and it may be a crucial factor in bringing us to a quick start into the future.  We are unleashing the power of light.

Scientists and engineers at the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal are developing a Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) weapon to take out targets that conduct electricity better than the air or ground that surrounds them.  This future-like laser machine would guide a lightning bolt via laser beam to hit the target with the possible power of 50 billion watts, more power than a larger city needs.

"If a laser beam is intense enough, its electro-magnetic field is strong enough to rip electrons off of air molecules, creating plasma," said Fischer. "This plasma is located along the path of the laser beam, so we can direct it wherever we want by moving a mirror."

Meanwhile, researchers of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a procedure to focus light inside biological tissue which allows doctors to perform surgery without having to cut through your skin, or diagnose cancer by seeing tumors inside the body.

Such a less invasive technique of diagnosing and treating diseases enables scientists to research and develop promising applications for this ultrasound based method, and the benefits for patients are easily recognizable.  

Ok; we are developing weapons and medical technology.  That doesn’t sound so futuristic, right?  What else?

Think about history; think about nowadays.  What is one of the most important factors for human development, for learning and progressing into a more advanced society and going beyond our physical limitations?  Communication, I would say.

Without communication, knowledge would be lost in time and space and we would never be able to reach our potential.  Today, we live in a globalized era where we can share and learn with each other, doesn’t matter where in the world you live.  Computers, internet, cell phones; technology bring us together and it’s the key for our evolution.

The advances in computer technology are widely defined by the amount and speed of data we can storage and share, and microchips and processors nowadays have a great power comparing to, let’s say, last year.  The Moore’s Law isn’t dead yet and new supercomputers – funny term as they always get old – are being developed right now.  But, wait – aren’t you talking about light?  Let’s talk briefly about something else first: superconductors.

Superconductivity can be defined as a phenomenon of no resistance for an electric current with the expulsion of magnetic fields occurring in certain materials when cooled below a characteristic critical temperature, and superconductors are materials which allow these phenomena to occur, with no energy loss.  Superconductors can be used in defense, transportation, energy generation, communication and research, just to summarize a few applications.

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford Department of Physics, Japan and Germany were able to transform a non-superconducting insulator into a superconductor by the use of light.  An infrared laser pulse was used to perturb the positions of some of the atoms in the material, and the compound, held at a temperature just 20 degrees above absolute zero, almost instantaneously became a superconductor for a fraction of a second, before relaxing back to its normal state.

The researchers are hopeful that it could offer a new route to obtaining superconductivity at higher temperatures.  If superconductors that work at room temperature could be achieved, it would open up many more technological applications. 

The applications of these materials are wide and they may even hold the key for the next step in the evolution of processors.  Maybe, in the near future, superconductors can be used to manufacture real quantum computers as first coined by Richard Feynman in 1982; who knows?  The good thing about the future is that it keeps turning into present. 

Go After That Thing That You Want

The Will To Win

If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and
your sleep for it

If only desire of it
Makes you quite mad enough
Never to tire of it,
Makes you hold all other things tawdry
and cheap for it

If life seems all empty and useless without it
And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,

If gladly you’ll sweat for it,
Fret for it, Plan for it,
Lose all your terror of God or man for it,

If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want.
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,

If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,
Nor sickness nor pain
Of body or brain
Can turn you away from the thing that you want,

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!

– Berton Braley

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Natalie du Toit (born 29 January 1984) is a South African swimmer. She is best known for the gold medals she won at the 2004 Summer Paralympics as well as the Commonwealth Games, and she became the first swimmer with disability to compete in regular Olympic Games (at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.)

Boosting You

I don’t know about you, but it amazes me when I see science overcoming the barriers that nature imposes us.  

Human beings are not impressively strong animals – we are definitely not among the fastest and our immune system has considerably deteriorated along the last millenniums – but our brains allow us to get far beyond any other species in this planet would ever dreamed of.  

We are not only able to create and control our personal environment and use technology to ease our lives, but we also use it to enhance ourselves.

Science for the blind

After losing his right eye in a shooting accident, the film maker Rob Spencer decided to implant a tiny camera in his eye socket and now he’s able to film and transmit videos wireless to screens, videos, cameras and hard drive devices.  He started the EyeBorg Project what would be, at least, a very interesting anthropological experiment.

A new technology of bionic eye is being developed to allow the blind to see again.  A camera in a pair of glasses sends a wireless signal to an implant behind the retina which sends a crude black & white image data back to the brain through the optic nerve.  Nowadays, people are receiving a 60 electrode implant, but scientists of the Doheny Institute in California are working on a 1,000 electrode version which should even allow facial recognition.  Electrical engineers of the Monash Vision Group have also begun trialing prototype microchips for powering the bionic eye and the Stanford School of Medicine is working on tiny solar-panel-like cells to be used in those kinds of implants.

Nootropics -- enhancing what you have and the impact on society

On the other hand, perfectly healthy individuals are using nootropics – also referred to as cognitive enhancers or intelligence enhancers – to boost their natural intellect and, said, “reach their true potential.”

If you have seen the blockbuster Limitless starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro you might have an idea of what I’m talking about.

Although these drugs are usually prescribed to treat medical conditions, many people take the risk and buy them over the internet in an attempt to boost performance at work, university and other social environment.  You can find plenty of information online about it – not exactly professional advices – and its popularity is increasing among students.  But what are the impacts on the society?

Imagine if you have to compete against a hyper focused student who wouldn’t get as tired as you and, worse, if that becomes common practice.

"I was able to write a 22-page paper in one day. I revised it over the next couple of days and got an A. Normally, I wouldn't have even been able to get a rough draft done in a week," says one student surveyed about his use of modafinil.

When asked about their potential impact on society, people clearly have concerns beyond safety - about how the drugs might create a two-tier education system in which some can afford the drugs and others can't, as shown on the BBC article Do Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs Work.

"The drugs would get stronger and stronger due to increased demand of performance. Addictions would ensue. People would not be able to live without them. Employers would demand their employees to be constantly using them."

Truth is, science allows us to get the best of ourselves.  The problem is when that also brings the bad side of human nature which is that predatory ability of exploitation and dominance.

The Man Cave Project

Ok…  You can be a science lover, a businessman, a devoted father or a party animal, but truth be said; doesn’t matter who/how you are -- everyone needs to catch a break every once in a while and surrender to guilty pleasures.

As a man, I fall into the category of the man cave wishers.  Come on… you actually don’t even have to be a man to appreciate a good man cave as I have lots of girl-friends (don’t get me wrong here; I’m a one woman man) who I’m sure would love to be in a place where you can have limitless fun without being bothered or having to be politically correct.

Every man has his own man cave project and a man cave may be never done as you can always attach new gadgets and maximize space within the area – although it is always perfect. Some might spend just a few hundred dollars on it and other enthusiastic people would sure invest thousands to develop the perfect place which is going to be, sometimes, more loved than the bedroom.

Let’s take a look at my ultimate man cave project… how’s yours?

PS3 and Nintendo Wii – for those who like to waste time arguing about which one is better, just understand one thing: both are cool and able to coexist in harmony.

A man’s TV and Home Theater system – because you have to do it right.

Air Hockey Table – within a short distance to the fridge where the beers are.

Foosball Table – it doesn’t have to be fancy to be cool…

Ping Pong Table – here goes a hint: don’t let your beer on the table, especially if you’re still playing.

A Pac Man – Galaga Arcade Machine – definitely hours of entertainment.

Pinball Machine – also within a short distance to the fridge.

A Pool Table – because you’re also classy.  Don’t forget the cigar.

Daytona USA Arcade – Good memories can create good memories…

Around the World of Science in 80 seconds

While on Earth we are expecting the next-generation 1.3 Gbps router by Netgear at the beginning of 2013 and are also excited to see the new step on evolution of processors as Intel’s Ivy Bridge with its 37 percent more processing speed with the use of just half the energy, outside our cozy planet, science is getting ready to enter a new era.

Welcome to the new God Rush; this one is going to happen far away from California – actually, far above.

Did you ever dreamed about being an astronaut or a miner when you were a kid? Maybe even a combination of both as a space miner? Well, today is your lucky day.

The visionaries from Planetary Resources figured that our planet resources are scarce and they are not gonna last for longer if we keep this rhythm of exploitation – not breaking news, but who’s doing anything about it? – and had a good idea: hey; if there are lots of asteroids floating out there, why don’t we start digging them? After all, all you need is some hundreds millions of dollars to generate tens of billions annually.

“Many of the scarce metals and minerals on Earth are in near-infinite quantities in space. As access to these materials increases, not only will the cost of everything from microelectronics to energy storage be reduced, but new applications for these abundant elements will result in important and novel applications.”

Peter H. Diamandis, M.D., Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Planetary Resources, Inc. says that one single 500-meter platinum-rich asteroid may contain the equivalent of all the Platinum Group Metals mined in history, for example.

And it is not just about platinum; they may possibly find new materials, develop new technologies, definitely make some pressure on the global economy and hopefully not get any dangerous space bacteria.

We know about approximately 9,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and there are more than 1,500 that are energetically as easy to reach as the Moon. The company has developed a spacecraft named Arkyd-100 Series that will be used in low-Earth orbit and ultimately help prioritize the first several NEA targets for the company’s follow-on expeditions.

Meanwhile, in the University of Cambridge, astronomers are now initiating a European-wide program, hailed as the premier European astrophysics space mission of the decade, to create the first 3D map made of a colossal picture of our Milky Way Galaxy that reveals the details of a billion stars, BBC News reports. Thanks to the Gaia satellite, due to be launched into space in August 2013 and whose heart is the largest digital camera ever built, they’ll be able to gather billion-pixel video data in three dimensions of a billion stars, galaxies, quasars, and solar system asteroids –which may be useful for our entrepreneurship in asteroid mining.

Gaia’s installation consists of an amazing cluster of 108 identical servers used for the bulk of the data processing, and 9 additional servers used for monitoring, backup and control. The individual servers are connected by a high-speed 40 gigabit Infiniband network to allow rapid communication and transfers of large data volumes and each of the 108 servers have powerful 2 6-core CPUs, 48 gigabytes of RAM and 9 terabytes of hard-disk storage. Therefore, the whole bulk processing system has 1296 processing cores, around 5 terabytes of RAM and nearly 1 petabyte of hard-disk storage for use during the active processing.

Here on Earth, I would be happy just by having a car with anti-fogging and self-cleaning windshields, but who’s inventing that? Oh, the guys from MIT. Thank you!

Smart Cities, Smart Life

After smart phones, now come Smart Cities.

We are so used to have technology in our daily lives, either in form of comfort appliances or security measures. Internet is something so intrinsically connected to our professional and personal life that it is inevitable its use in research, monitoring and control of people - according to Mindflash.com, roughly 45% of employers now reportedly use social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to screen potential employees (and, of course, keep monitoring them); The Telegraph says that Britons spend an average of 15 hours a week online, and the average American spent 32 hours per month in 2010 (note that by average there’s no distinction of online activity by age group or gender).

Both the Shetland Islands Council and Corby Borough Council - among the smallest local authorities in the UK - have more CCTV cameras than the San Francisco Police Department. The borough of Wandsworth has the highest number of CCTV cameras in London, with just under four cameras per 1,000 people. Its total number of cameras - 1,113 - is more than the police departments of Boston [USA], Johannesburg and Dublin City Council combined.

Ok; the Big Brother is watching us, but what else?

Cities tend to reach for progress and the use of technology is inexorable in the pace for the future.

Vehicle-interlock systems that disable automobiles when sensors detect an inebriated driver have been around for some years now and, because people cheat the system (of course they do), a face recognition program is being developed by engineers of the University of Windsor with the use of biometrics.

In Paris, three years ago, 100 people volunteered under the Citypulse project to monitor ozone and noise levels of different areas in order to gather data to prevent and solve present and future problems, making the city a better place to live.

In U.S.A., a new bill (Senate Bill 1813, known as MAP-21) passed by the U.S. Senate in March calls for “mandatory event data recorders” to be installed in all new passenger motor vehicles sold in the U.S. from 2015 on, for recording data before, during, or after a crash.

Everything seems wonderful so far; what’s the matter?

As Amara Angelica eloquently explained on her article about these black boxes, “Maybe the black box in the future will eventually monitor everything happening in the car, with real-time feeds to Homeland Security?” That’s when I ask: where is the limit between security monitoring and privacy invasion? I remember the airport full-body X-ray scanners polemic – I still travel by plane and, every time, it is still uncomfortable.

I am a big fan of science fiction predictions of the future, and there are two that come to mind about that: one is Spielberg’s film Minority Report and the police division of Pre-Crime and the other is the book 1984 by George Orwell which coined the so common term Big Brother (which I have even used on this very article).

Am I going too far by making a link here?

Smart Cities will collect data of all kinds - cars, appliances, cameras, roadways, pipelines etc - and use it to connect and control every aspect of life with massive operating systems that will run these cities in their entirety; now, who’s gonna provide all this apparatus and withdraw its benefits? The market is estimated to be worth $16 billion by the end of the decade and big companies like IBM and Cisco are already on it. Yep; the future is going to be owned by monopolies – not breaking news in any society, either capitalist or socialist.

So, technology came to help us to live a better life, I agree; everyone wants some degree of comfort and to be at ease. The problem comes when you get too dependent on it, or when it controls you. How smart are You?

You know you're in the future when...

Today I heard someone saying: “I got an appointment to replace my left knee…” and I thought to myself, “That’s how you know you’re in the future. Then, it occurred to me…

You know you're in the future when parallel parking can occur automatically.

You know you’re in the future when your cell phone has more processing power than your computer, more mega pixels than your camera and you can talk to it.

You know you're in the future when it only costs $15.50 to get corporate secrets, but a bottle of water costs $40.

You know you’re in the future when you can buy a high resolution plasma TV of 59” -- which also happens to be 3D -- for $2.000, but the warranty is for only one year, and it probably won’t last for two.

You know you’re in the future when you read about electronics made of nanomaterials that can rewire themselves on the fly, when a high-school student finds a possible cure for cancer, but you turn on the TV and they are showing “Keeping up with the Kardashians” (sorry, I refuse to link that).

You know you’re in the future when people want to build a space elevator, but there are still people dying by starvation in the world.

You know you’re in the future – and getting older – when kids don’t know the connection between a pencil and a tape.

You know you’re in the future when people go for a break and do nothing but texting, unaware of the world that surrounds them.

You know you’re in the future when you can buy online a personal submarine with over 250hp that looks like a killer whale.

You know you’re in the future when you can buy a car with over 130hp that runs 50mpg.

You know you’re the future when scientists trap antimatter for over 15 minutes and the majority of the world doesn’t give a damn about it.

And what about you? How do you know you’re in the future?

21st Century Life

I have been talking about the future, about how we are evolving at a fast pace, and how that implicitly boosts our ability to good and evil et cetera; so, here is a song about a man who realizes that; it is also a criticism of how mankind still faces so many social problems, despite all its advances.  The song is 21st Century Life by Sam Sparro, and I'm not gonna say I agree with all of what has been suggested here, but for the bass players, check out that bass line – Dave Wilder did a very good job of almost forcing the audience to play air bass.

21st Century Life by Sam Sparro

Songwriters: ROGG, JESSE / FALSON, SAM

When I was a little boy living in the last century

I thought about living in the future then it occurred to me

I turned around the future was now, the future was all around me

Nothing like I had imagined, it was totally confounding

21st century life, I got swept away

I got 21,000 things that I gotta do today

21st century life, well what can I say?

The new world's got me feeling so dirty

Think I need to get down and play

Well, now I turned on the TV just in time enough to hear

What the Pope said, the Pope said

And just a few tiny words later somebody wants the man dead

What about famine and disease, well they said it's too bad, oops

Because I'm never alone, it's not just a phone, it's a stereo

21st century life, I got swept away

I got 21,000 things that I gotta do today

21st century life, well what can I say?

The new world's got me feeling so dirty

Think I need to get down and play

Now I'm not a little boy, I'm in the 21st century

Well, you might think we've come a really long way

But there's still no equality

I watched the news on my computer screen

Talking about buying my weed out of a vending machine

You tell me I'm free but how can it be

When you're always watching me on the CCTV

21st century life, I got swept away

I got 21,000 things that I gotta do today

21st century life, well what can I say?

The new world's got me feeling so dirty

Think I need to get down and play

21, 21, 21

I'm talking about 21, 21

Super-Earth

Only a few decades ago, if you said in public that life outside Earth was not just possible, but probable, people would laugh at you and talk behind your back.  Thanks to the advances in science, we’re able to see much further than ever in the history of mankind and collect some interesting facts about the subject.  Have you ever heard about super-Earths?

Astronomers working with the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) HARPS instrument have stated and estimation that, only in our galaxy, there are tens of billions of rocky planets not so much bigger than Earth orbiting red dwarf stars within the habitable zones (the area in a star system where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface) of those relatively cool stars.

Being in the habitable zone doesn’t necessarily mean that the planet has a perfect atmosphere or temperature; some may be too hot; others too cold, and the mass of the atmosphere can be really tricky in order to provide the essential means for the creation of life.

New observations indicate that 40% of all red dwarfs have rocky planets orbiting in their habitable zones.  Our own sun is a hotter G V, or yellow dwarf, star and is more than twice as massive as a red dwarf.

There are different types of stars known in the universe.  Because about 80% of stars in the Milky Way are red dwarfs (also referred to as M-class stars), this leads to the conclusion that tens of billions of rocky planets exist in habitable zones in our galaxy.

However, the planets called super-Earths have a better chance of supporting life than planets Earth-sized, and they can have up to 10 times the mass of our planet.  As scientists have also stated that every star in our galaxy, the Milky Way, has at least one planet in orbit around it, we’re able to get for the first time an idea of how many super-Earths might exist out there.

Fortunately, a great number of these exciting planets are relatively nearby neighbors: estimates suggest that there are 100 super-Earths in habitable zones around stars 30 light years or less from us, which is, in cosmological terms, really close.

Sara Seager, a professor of planetary science and physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says: "We are sure, though, that because there are billions of stars in our galaxy alone, and because planet formation is a random process, many stars will end up with potentially habitable planets."

Now, the next quest is the study of their atmospheres and search for life – although Stephen Hawking has a very persuasive point of view about that; aliens almost certainly exist but humans should avoid making contact because, in his words, “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans."

He explained: "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."  Draw your own conclusions...

Prometheus

Ridley Scott delights us once more with his ability to make grand science-fiction movies accompanied by intelligent plots.  The upcoming Prometheus will explore the origins of mankind on Earth, with a touch of its own mythology and science; if you are expecting some connection with Alien or Blade Runner get yourself ready for a whole new adventure – although the existence of extra-terrestrial life forms can be a similarity. 

The cast shows competent actors and actresses like Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace and others, and its budget is assumed to be something around $150 million dollars; Scott had initially requested a $250 million budget along with an R rating, but 20th Century Fox was reluctant to invest so much money in a film that was not PG-13, and the studio was pleased because Lindelof's screenplay was found to be more budget-conscious.

The plot follows the crew of the spaceship Prometheus in the year 2085, a team of scientists and explorers, as they explore an advanced alien civilization in search of the origins of humanity on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life's ultimate mystery.

Truth is, little is known about Prometheus' plotline; we know that the film is set in space for the most part, and is also largely based on discoveries about the creation of mankind, life and the Earth, but in the process, they threaten the future existence of mankind and are faced with unimaginable horrors.

The movie is scheduled for release on June 8, 2012 (USA) and you can find more information about it on its official website.

Virtuosity

If you don’t have the habit of going to operas every once in a while, that is something really worth doing – at least once so you see for yourself this magnificent form of art in all its splendor and virtuosity.

Elite singers and musicians perform at the top of their talents an amazing combination of music and drama which was created half millennium ago and evolved to the nearest to perfection as an art form can be. 

As it is widely known, Italy is the heart of the world in opera matters and it’s also believed that this music tradition had its origins there, but that does not get the importance of other countries in essentially contributing to create unforgettable works, as Germany, France, Russia and England.

Here I will leave you with some of my favorite operas – at least, some arias – in case you’re curious to see something new or maybe just miss watching them; anyway, I hope you have a good time!

Turandot

Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, and perhaps it has one of the most famous aria in the world.  The first performance was held at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on April 25, 1926 and conducted by Arturo Toscanini.  Puccini's last opera was left unfinished at his death, and what he had intended to be a final, transcendent love duet was completed by a younger colleague, Franco Alfano.

In Peking's Imperial Palace, the fatally beautiful Princess Turandot receives unlucky suitors from far and wide, who must answer three riddles to win her hand—or die.  Calaf, son of the exiled King Timur of Tartary, is struck with Turandot's beauty, and ignoring protests from his father and Liù, the servant girl who loves him, he matches wits with the princess.  Although he guesses the three riddles, Calaf offers his life to Turandot if she can discover his secret name.  Searching the city in vain, the princess finally tortures faithful Liù, driving her to suicide.  Faced with Liù's sacrifice and Calaf's stern devotion, Turandot crumbles, and weeping in Calaf's arms, she declares that his secret name is Love. 

Tosca

Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa and it premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900.  It is personally one of my favorites of all, and the 2001 movie with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu was a very good and accessible reproduction of it.

Tosca opens in a roman church, where the artist Cavaradossi paints a Mary Magdalen portrait while dreaming of his lover, Tosca, a famously passionate singer.  Suddenly the escaped political prisoner Angelotti staggers in, on the run from the savage police chief Scarpia.  When Tosca arrives and overhears the two men talking, she is devoured with suspicion that Cavaradossi has another lover, but the painter soothes her and hides Angelotti.  The angry Scarpia bursts in, hot on the escapee's heels and burning with lust for Tosca. Sizing up the situation, he schemes to make the jealous singer betray her lover's secret.  Cavaradossi is arrested and brutally tortured, blackmailing Tosca into revealing Angelotti's whereabouts.  Scarpia demands Tosca's favors as payment for her lover's life, but the agonized Tosca meets his embrace with a fatal knife thrust. Joyfully, she goes to free Cavaradossi, but Scarpia's final cruel artifice leads her instead to witness her lover's execution.  As the police pursue her, Tosca throws herself from a parapet to her death.

Carmen

Carmen is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet.  It is, perhaps, the opera with the most famous arias of all.  The opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, on 3 March 1875, and was not at first particularly successful; its initial run extended to 36 performances.  Before this run was concluded, Bizet died suddenly, and thus knew nothing of the opera's later celebrity.

In the kind of Spain that 19th-century French composers dreamt of, gypsy cigarette girl Carmen taunts corporal Don José with her flamboyant charms, and even the gentle peasant girl Micaela, who loves Don José, cannot break Carmen's spell, and the corporal gives up everything to follow the gypsy into the mountains.  She quickly tires of Don José and runs off with the handsome matador Escamillo, fatalistically embracing the warning of death she has seen in the cards.  As Escamillo triumphs in the bullring, Carmen is confronted by Don José in a nearby alley, and this time, her defiance cannot save her.

Rigoletto

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi.  It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851. It is considered by many to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi's middle-to-late career.

Rigoletto is the bitter, hunchbacked court jester whose treasured daughter, Gilda, has caught the eye of the womanizing Duke of Mantua.  Approaching Gilda, the duke declares his love, and the girl discovers a passion for him.  Court nobles, seeking revenge for the jester's many insults, dupe Rigoletto into helping them kidnap Gilda, who is delivered to the Duke and seduced by him.  Determined to show his daughter the Duke's true nature, Rigoletto takes her to the house of the assassin Sparafucile, whose sister Maddalena offers the duke her gypsy favors.  Rigoletto has hired Sparafucile to kill the duke, but Maddalena convinces her assassin brother to murder arandom victim instead.  Knowing she will be murdered, Gilda appears in disguise, is stabbed, stuffed in a sack and delivered to Rigoletto in place of the duke's body.  At the last minute, the horrified hunchback opens the sack and discovers his daughter, who whispers her last words of love for the duke and dies.

La Traviata

La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, based on La dame aux Camélias (1852), a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas.  The first performance of the opera was on 6 March 1853 at the La Fenice opera house in Venice.  It was jeered at times by the audience, who directed some of their scorn at the casting of soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli in the lead role of Violetta.  Though she was an acclaimed singer, they considered her to be too old (at 38) and too overweight to credibly play a young woman dying of consumption.

The opera tells the story of a Paris rich boy named Alfredo, who falls for the consumptive prostitute Violetta.  His father isn't happy with the relationship and persuades her to abandon him because her scandalous past threatens his son's future.  She goes back to her old life, but falls mortally ill, so Alfredo’s father relents and allows a touching deathbed reunion.

Aida

Aida, sometimes spelled Aïda, is also an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Aida was first performed at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo on 24 December 1871, conducted by Giovanni Bottesini.

On Egypt, Rhadames, a warrior, is delighted to learn that he has been chosen to lead the army against the Ethiopian enemy, because he hopes that he will thus be able to win Aida, a slave girl, as his prize for victory in battle.  Aida is the captured daughter of the Ethiopian king, Amonasro, and she fears that either her lover or her father will be killed in battle.  However, the king's daughter, Amneris, has set her mark on Rhadames, and his coldness towards her confirms her suspicions that he loves someone else.  Pharaoh and his court receive triumphant Rhadames, who is asked to name his reward.  The crowd call for the prisoners to be killed, but Rhadames asks that, as his reward, their lives be spared. Pharaoh agrees, and gives him the hand of Amneris for good measure, plus naming Rhadames as his own successor as Pharaoh.  Amneris tells Rhadames that King Amonasro has been killed, but that Aida is alive. The deal is that if Rhadames agrees to forget about Aida, she, Amneris that is, will obtain a pardon from the Pharaoh, but he can’t. If Amneris can't have her man, nobody else can, and Rhadames is thus condemned to death. By being bricked up alive, but before the vault is closed, Aida joins him to share his fate. Amneris repents of her actions.

Pagliacci

Pagliacci, sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo, and it is his only opera that is still widely staged.  Leoncavallo was slapped with a lawsuit for plagiarizing the plot for the opera Pagliacci.  In his defense, Leoncavallo claimed that the opera plot was based on a childhood experience.  Pagliacci premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on May 21, 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

Tonio, a member of an itinerant touring troupe, tells the audience of a village in Calabria that though they are seeing a play, they should remember that actors, even clowns, are real people who suffer and live lives of agony as well as joy.  Canio invites everyone to their performance that night, and the villagers invite him to have a drink with them.  One man makes a crack about Tonio having a chance to seduce Nedda, Canio’s wife.  Canio, instantly serious, tells him that nothing relating to his wife is a joking matter.  When he leaves, Nedda is at first frightened that Canio might know something of her activities, but then she finally agrees to leave Canio for her lover, a townsperson named Silvio.  Tonio, who desired Nedda, smarting from her rejection, returns and sees the lovers.  He rushes off to the village to get Canio.  The two lovers plan to elope that night, and Canio comes in just as he hears Nedda sing that on that night she will be Silvio’s forever; she does not use his name, and Canio screams and chases the younger man who escapes.  When Canio returns, she refuses to give him her lover’s name. She goes off to prepare for the show; Beppe tells Canio that he must prepare as well and play the clown although his heart is breaking.  The play opens with scenes of Nedda with Tonio and their happy romance.  Canio, as the clown, enters just as Nedda sings the exact words he heard her say to her lover an hour or so earlier, and he burst into fury.  Nedda tries for a few moments to bring Canio back to the play, but all he can do is to demand the name of her lover.  She finally explodes, crying that she will never tell him. Blind with rage, he stabs her.  Silvio breaks from the crowd; Canio sees him and stabs him. The opera ends with the immortal line, “The comedy is over.”