Quantum Computing - an update

 This is a recent video regarding the quantum computing effort at Google. These types of computers are already real, but just in their infancy stage compared to where experts expect them to go. Keep in mind that these will not replace your everyday computers and cell phones, but are valuable in advanced research and meant for highly complex calculational problems. And one application that I don't think anyone understands yet is what happens when these computing systems are used with AI and advanced robotics systems. Time will tell...

My 'brother from another mother' was on the Kelly Clarkson Show today

 I have a number of amazing friends around the world, and I am one of the luckiest people alive to be able to say this. Right up there at the top is Stephen Ritz, who teaches in the Bronx, and found his way to having classrooms revolve around tower gardens, and emphasizing good nutrition as one of the absolute essentials for kids to do well and thrive in school. With his Green Bronx Machine organization, he has some 1100 schools with 370,000 students using his curriculum and ideas in their classrooms everyday. 

He was on the 'Kelly Clarkson Show', and his segment aired today. I encourage you to check it out, and my own classroom is fortunate to use our tower gardens to help dozens of families in need of fresh produce every week in Evanston, thanks to Stephen introducing me to all this nearly a decade ago!

Artemis II page - A very successful NASA mission!!

 This is the Artemis II homepage for NASA. What an incredible mission, with splashdown happening to the minute that was planned and predicted! Congratulations to the tens of thousands who were part of this project! 

   Photo from Artemis II mission...remarkable!

Interesting Lightning phenomenon - Schumann Resonance

 There are 50-100 lightning strikes around the world every second! This is because at any given moment there are around 2000 storms taking place. Every bolt of lightning creates electromagnetic radiation in the form of EM waves, but an interesting thing happens between the ground and the ionosphere, which is a layer in the atmosphere consisting of a global layer and shield of ions - it forms a resonance cavity for those EM waves (i.e. the em waves are trapped between the ground and ionosphere). 

Some of the waves, at certain frequencies, can overlap and add up, sort of like sound waves can overlap and resonate in musical wind instruments, forming what's called the Schumann resonance. This is something scientists can measure anywhere around the world! And the resonance depends on the number of lightning strikes. By measuring this at different times of the year, and over many years, it is another measure of global warming, since the frequency of lightning strikes is dependent on the average air temperature. The measurements are yet another confirmation of increased warming, because this is reflected in the comparisons of Schumann measurements over many years.

Nature is cool!