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A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Sunday, July 13, 2003
EcoSphere
My wife gave me a very nice birthday present today: it's an EcoSphere. This is a completely sealed mini-aquarium. It's a (very nearly) completely closed ecosystem that only requires a little bit of light and a comfortable temperature range to stay alive for an average of 2 years. The system consists of salt water, air, algae, bacteria, and brine shrimp. The shrimp are pretty active, and they look to me like tiny lobsters. They eat the algae, exhale CO2, and produce waste. The bacteria eat the waste, exhale CO2, and produce their own waste. The algae consume the bacteria's waste and the CO2, and produce oxygen. et voila, a closed cycle! What's most amazing about the EcoSphere is the fact that the system requires absolutely no other inputs except light and heat, and it can keep running! According to the manufacturer, the shrimp can live for up to five years, and the entire system can live beyond ten years!
The EcoSphere is beautiful and relaxing to watch. It's also educational. Naturally, my wife understood that my interest would most easily be piqued by a tie-in to outer space, and the EcoSphere is a spinoff of NASA research into closed-cycle life support systems for deep space travel. The life support methods that work in near earth orbit, or even for lunar voyages, won't work very well for interplanetary travel. The EcoSphere provides a glimpse into the kind of system that will be needed for long-duration space flight.
My wife gave me a very nice birthday present today: it's an EcoSphere. This is a completely sealed mini-aquarium. It's a (very nearly) completely closed ecosystem that only requires a little bit of light and a comfortable temperature range to stay alive for an average of 2 years. The system consists of salt water, air, algae, bacteria, and brine shrimp. The shrimp are pretty active, and they look to me like tiny lobsters. They eat the algae, exhale CO2, and produce waste. The bacteria eat the waste, exhale CO2, and produce their own waste. The algae consume the bacteria's waste and the CO2, and produce oxygen. et voila, a closed cycle! What's most amazing about the EcoSphere is the fact that the system requires absolutely no other inputs except light and heat, and it can keep running! According to the manufacturer, the shrimp can live for up to five years, and the entire system can live beyond ten years!
The EcoSphere is beautiful and relaxing to watch. It's also educational. Naturally, my wife understood that my interest would most easily be piqued by a tie-in to outer space, and the EcoSphere is a spinoff of NASA research into closed-cycle life support systems for deep space travel. The life support methods that work in near earth orbit, or even for lunar voyages, won't work very well for interplanetary travel. The EcoSphere provides a glimpse into the kind of system that will be needed for long-duration space flight.
