Science and technology with Bill Bain

The Herald:

PRESIDENT Trump warning of an “enormous destructive power” threatening the US last week nearly blew a gasket in the planet’s irony pipes. It was telling, however, that Hurricane Irma’s barnet-destroying force spooked even The Donald.

A keen conspiracy theorist, Trump will be aware of rumours surrounding the US government’s top-secret weather research facility in Alaska – the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). Suggestions that it is actually a weapon (some sort of storm-bazooka that can be fired at enemies, apparently) have been polluting the internet for years and this week murmurs even penetrated some of the more questionable factions of the mainstream media. 

Of course, anyone who believes or proliferates such silliness needs their broadband connection, and perhaps their cerebral cortex, severed. The truth is that modern science has no working or credible method of creating, stopping or even decelerating extreme weather conditions – yet. 

Some of the more outlandish proposals considered over the past 20 years have included bombarding cyclones with sonic booms and even blasting embryonic storms with microwaves from space. 

There is hope, however. It seems the life’s work of an esteemed professor from the University of Edinburgh could, once again, lead to Scottish engineering ingenuity changing the world. 

A lauded inventor, Stephen Salter MBE believes destructive weather formations can be sapped of their fearsome power by using technology to cool the surfaces of oceans. Buying into Salter’s somewhat surreal vision (where giant tubes send warm water from the surface of the ocean into the depths, which is naturally replaced by the colder water below) technology firm Intellectual Ventures produced the Salter Sink in 2009. 

This wave-powered pump moves warm surface water to depths of around 650 feet – the idea being thousands of these devices could cool the seas in hurricane-prone regions of the world. 

This technique may sound, at best, maverick, or more uncharitably, mad, but it’s certainly not as out there as weather manipulation’s most notable disaster. In 1947, Nobel laureate chemist Irving Langmuir attempted to drop an unholy amount of dry ice into the eye of a hurricane from his plane.

This jaw-dropping display of daredevilry not only failed – it backfired spectacularly. The cooling attempt resulted in making the dying storm very angry indeed. 

Hurricane King, as it was named, abruptly made a previously unheard of about-turn and headed directly towards Georgia – causing tens of millions of dollars of damage and at least one human casualty. 

Undoubtedly aware of Langmuir’s lamentable folly, Salter has a back-up plan if his tube cooling method fails – and it’s one which he believes is the correct way forward, even if it initially sounds even more outlandish. He believes that by making clouds in the sky a little bit brighter by spraying them with aerosols, he could take advantage of a natural phenomenon called the Twomey Effect.

It means the atmospheric moisture necessary to create a hurricane could be lessened – by making the cloud reflect more sunlight back out into space. This would, theoretically, keep ocean waters from warming up to the magic storm-causing threshold of 26.5 degrees Celsius.

Salter believes his brightening concept stands a much better chance of succeeding than his multitude of pumps, but there have still not been any public or private investors willing to stump up the estimated $40 million cost of creating a prototype aerosol cloud-brightening system.

It might seem like a lot of cash to spend for no guaranteed outcome, but when you consider Hurricane Katrina caused $80 billion of damage and Hurricane Irma is likely to far exceed that amount, to not at least experiment with a potentially preventative measure seems like the very definition of false economy. 

If Trump genuinely wanted to make a grand gesture of solidarity with those effected by Irma, he could put his money where his tweeting thumb is and fund the prototype of Salter’s device. Compared with the annual $600bn US defence budget, $40m could fall behind a Pentagon couch and no-one would notice. There is another way, however. We can simply utilise the skills of a man who is extremely experienced in such aerosol-based endeavours. The President himself.

If The Donald is fired from a cannon straight into those stormy cumulus formations with a tin of VO5 Ultimate Hold, success is assured. No-one on Earth is better qualified to target problematic formations of wispy nothingness. A note of caution, however. By releasing such an unknown quantity of aerosol (pronounce that however you want) into the skies, we risk the President’s scalp burning up in the stratosphere – potentially liberating a potent gas cocktail from decades of absorbed lacquer and pomade.

The resulting combustion could ignite the remaining ozone layer and transform the planet into a blackened shell.To avoid this undignified fate, perhaps Trump should just stump up.

The Herald:

FLYING THE FLAG

NAPOLEON once advised letting China sleep, for when this dragon awoke, the world would shake. 

It’s doubtful he was referring to the creation of a Star Trek-style warp drive which could take mankind to the stars, but if this week’s announcement from the Chinese Academy of Space Technology that it has developed a propulsion system which defies the current laws of physics is true, Monsieur Bonaparte’s prediction will be proven in ways he couldn’t possibly have imagined. 

Rumours of an engine that could shoot mankind into the stars at previously unachievable speeds and with no need for heavy fuel are anything but new – Nasa admits it has been attempting to develop such technology, known as an EMDrive, for decades.

This theoretical engine, which China now claims to have developed, works by bouncing microwaves around inside an enclosed container. It has no exhaust and requires no propulsion.

If indeed a working model exists, it is certain to revolutionise the possibilities space travel into sci-fi territory. 
Initially, manned ships could reach Mars in just a few weeks and as the return trip wouldn’t require a combustion engine, we could actually come home whenever we wanted. China says it will now use satellites to test the new tech in zero-gravity conditions.

Before we get too excited, many researchers still insist the concept is impossible. In life generally, Scots have a special gift of deep cynicism which works to anchor our fellow man’s aspirations down to a more earthly plane. And Steven Thomson from the University of St Andrews doesn’t disappoint. “The EMDrive is designed to be a closed system that doesn’t emit any particles or radiation,” he says. “It cannot possibly generate any thrust without breaking some seriously fundamental laws of physics. Bluntly, it’s like trying to pull yourself up by your shoelaces and hoping you’ll levitate.” 

The question remains whether the Chinese are simply engaging in a propaganda war or have actually achieved a quantum leap in the space race. 

Either way, there will be irony. No matter which country wins the race to put a man on Mars in the coming decades, the first flag planted on the Red Planet will no doubt still have been Made in China.