CloudSeeding
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Six drones that do good for people and the planet
When the general public first learned about drones, the context was largely related to military applications and spy tactics, so the unmanned aircraft were cast with a bad rap. Years later, a number of creative technologists have found ways to use drones to help people, animals, and the environment. Drones are being used to protect endangered animals from poachers in Africa, to beam internet access to parts of the world never before served, and even as remote flying builders. Drones are helping humans work on projects - from the curious to the comical - that wouldn't have been possible without the small autonomous aircraft. Read on to learn about some of the most amazing ways drones are helping people and the planet.
Scientist creating rain-making lasers, Weezy and Fat Joe await royalty checks
We've heard of "making it rain," but actually making it rain -- with lasers, no less -- now, that's something to write home about. A team of researchers at the University of Geneva is coming ever closer to creating real-deal downpours by shooting beams from their Teramobile mobile femtosecond-Terawatt laser system into the sky above the Rhone River. While logging nearly 133 hours between the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010, the team observed that the beams actually triggered the creation of nitric acid particles, which bound water molecules together creating water droplets. Those droplets proved too small and light to actually be categorized as rain, but the discovery has apparently spurred the scientists on. Previous efforts to make it rain, known as seeding, have used rockets and jets to shoot silver iodide and dry ice into the sky. No word yet on when the scientists expect to successfully "wash the spider out."
Swiss scientists create dark clouds with a laser lining (video)
Lasers can tell time, shoot down missiles and power one heck of a TV. Now, scientists claim they can create rain clouds, too. Turning a 5-terawatt infrared laser on the sky in short, 100-femtosecond bursts, researchers at the University of Geneva managed to strip electrons from the surrounding air, causing the formation of "hydroxlyl radicals" and growing water droplets in their wake. Though some scientific peers believe the idea could never be used to generate real, useful rain compared to existing cloud seeding techniques, Geneva scholars have now duplicated the effect in both the lab and in the skies over Berlin, and we're sure it's only a matter of time before some nefarious villain figures the frickin' weather control technology into a suitably evil plot. Video after the break.
Beijing Olympics to get Lenovo-designed torch, seeded clouds
Apparently, Lenovo kept enough staff on board to create the 2008 Olympic torch, as the firm's Cloud of Promise design was recently selected over 300 competing themes and will be "carried by torchbearers around the world in the Olympic Torch Relay preceding the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games." With Lenovo being a China-based firm, the company's chairman (Yang Yuanqing) stated that it was "an honor to have its torch design chosen," and oddly enough, that wasn't the only cloud-related Olympic news coming out of Beijing. Reportedly, meteorologists will be utilizing a process known as "cloud seeding" to force rain out beforehand and subsequently clear the filthy skies and alleviate the purported "50-percent chance of rain during the opening and closing ceremonies." Of course, this isn't exactly a push to become a greener society or anything, but at least the HD feeds from around the area will look a bit better during the competitions.Read - Lenovo designs Olympic torchRead - Cloud seeding in China
