Changing Space Travel

The Finnish Meteorological Institute is currently working on the construction of what is called an electric sail, or ESAIL.  It is supposed to the be the fastest man made device ever built.  It is powered by solar radiation and requires no chemical propellant.  The craft consists of thin metallic tethers around the space craft that stay charged at a high positive potential.  The protons in the solar wind are of opposite charge and therefore force the sail away from the sun.  It is estimated that after a year in space the sail could reach a speed of 19 miles per second.

If the project goes as planned this could revolutionize space travel as we know it.  It is predicted that it would take 5 years to reach Pluto so any type of manned mission still seems a little unrealistic.  Hopefully this will lead us into a direction of real long-distance space travel.

A Really Smart Pen

A new pen is on the market.  I know this does not seem like the most exciting and latest innovation.  Well, this one is really cool.  This pen saves up to 40 pages of text that you physically write down.  You can then upload your text to a computer and reboot the memory on the pen.

This will allow users to protect information so that they will never forget or lose handwritten documents.  It is not complicated for the user and has no buttons or keys to press.  When the cap is taken off the pen, it is activated to start storing data, and when the cap is placed back on it is turned off.  Best of all, it looks, feels and writes just like a normal pen.  Inside the pen some more complicated parts are contained. The built in processor that digitizes your handwriting does so through the use of a digital camera, an advanced image-processing unit and a communication unit.

Personally, I know this pen would come in handy for keeping my various notes organized.  I am constantly losing notes, or gathering to many that I can not keep them organized.  Many times I have tried scanning my notes to get an electronic form which is an inconvenient, lengthy process that produces poor quality digital scans.  

Miracle Spray

A new spray, made of individuals own stem cells is now being used as medication.  Currently this apray has been tested on burn vistims and has shown remarkable reuslts.  The University of Utah pilot project removes red blood cells, and then takes a concentrate of platelets and progenitor, which is combined with calcium and thrombin to produce a jelly like substance.

One such example of the sprays success was healing a severe burn on the foot of a man with daibetes.  The mans burn was and open wound for many months and would heal, leaving it open to the possibility of infection.  After this spray was applied the skin rapidly improved. Another women with a severe burn and a failed skin graft.  With the second graft, and the application of the spray, the graft took and she was on her way to recovery.

The military has been keeping updated on the progress of these experiments.  They are very interested in how it could help the health of soldiers in battle.  As the project progresses we will hopefully learn more applictions for this miracle spray.