Fred Pearce writes about our exploration of whether humanity is nearing peak use of stuff in this article in Anthropocene magazine: Are We Approaching Peak Stuff? Almost imperceptibly, we are stepping off the consumption treadmill
Area of Research: Technology & Human Environment
Polished version of Michelson Oceans lecture
Jesse Ausubel had the honor in October 2015 to present the Michelson Lecture at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. Thanks Captain and Professor Emil Petruncio!
We now post a polished version of that lecture, “Ocean Past, Ocean Future: Reflections on the Shift from the 19th to 21st Century Ocean.”
Abstract In the 19th century humans knew little about the oceans, but other forms of life knew a lot. Our job the past 135 years has been to catch up and surpass other forms of life in knowledge of the oceans. The advance of observation through science and technology, including new carriers and processors of information, has vastly expanded the oceans knowable to humans beyond what a sailor’s five senses could directly provide. By infiltrating the ocean with informationally connected sensors, humans are becoming the top experts on the oceans in the 21st century.
New Harvest conference
Alan visited the second annual New Harvest conference on cellular agriculture in Red Hook, Brooklyn, which included a variety of talks and exhibits on the science and broader implications of manufacturing food in vitro (from cell culture), as opposed to in vivo (from plants and animals). Technological advances have been achieved in growth media, more “lifelike” tissue engineering, and novel bioreactors designed to “brew” meat. Remaining challenges include the ability to successfully match the taste, texture, and cost of conventionally-sourced meat- and plant-based foods, as well as successfully scaling-up production processes. R&D is spread among a variety of corporate startups (e.g., Memphis Meats, Finless Foods), traditional academic labs (e.g., Tufts, NC State), and citizen science efforts (Shojinmeat Project).
Loglet Lab software version 4
The behavior of a dynamic system, be it biological or socio-technical, frequently resembles a series of logistic wavelets, or “loglets.” Loglet analysis involves the decomposition of growth and diffusion patterns into S-shaped logistic components. In the easiest cases, a loglet appears as a single S-shaped curve. LogletLab is designed for use with user data to help users analyze and decompose growth processes.
LogletLab software has gone through several development cycles since the initial release of LogletLab 1 in 1998 straight through to the recent release of LogletLab 4.1, an online tool with extensive statistical analysis capabilities built in. The most recent edition of LogletLab 4.1 offer users numerous new features including an extended selection of fitting functions and advanced statistical analysis.
All versions of LogletLab are available free of charge.
Click here to access LogletLab 4
Here is an example, the space shuttle launch history.
https://ll4.ddns.net:8000/?page=index&preload=library.get.288
Thanks to David Burg, Eyal Schachter, Perrin Meyer, Jason Yung, Iddo Wernick, and Alan Curry.
Maglevs in the NY Times
An article about the Hyperloop magnetically levitated train in the 10 August 2017 New York Times quotes Jesse Ausubel:
Why Even the Hyperloop Probably Wouldn’t Change Your Commute Time
Humans have historically tended to travel about half an hour to work, regardless of how fast the mode of transportation.
August 10, 2017 – – The Upshot – Print Headline: “Hyperloop Would Offer Speed, Though Not a Cut in Commuting Time
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We first studied maglevs during the 1980s as part of a National Academy of Engineering project on cities and infratructures. Not enough has changed.
R Herman, JH Ausubel. Cities and their vital systems: Synthesis and perspectives Pp 1-21 in Cities and their vital systems: Infrastructure, Past, Present, and Future, National Academy, Washington, DC1988
More recent essays in this domain are:
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Italy’s Corriere della Sera also runs a new story :Ecco perché auto senza pilota e treni iperveloci non ci faranno … Corriere della Sera–Aug 15, 2017
La scienziata comportamentale Jesse Ausubel si è in pratica chiesta: considerando il fatto che, secondo uno studio della American Community …
Concrete Life Cycle Assessment
PHE researcher Iddo Wernick co-authored a recent article, Comparative LCA of concrete with natural and recycled coarse aggregate in the New York City area, published in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. Congratulations to the main co-authors, professors Ardavan Yazdanbakhsh and Larry Bank and student Thomas Baez, in the Department of Civil Engineering at City College of New York.
Centennial meeting of petroleum geologists
Jesse Ausubel speaks in Houston at the 4 April 2017 session of the centennial meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists on the next 100 years of energy use.
Ocean Exploration Forum Final Report
The Final Report of the 2016 National Ocean Exploration Forum (NOEF) has been posted on the updated NOEF website. The site includes the reports of the small groups that developed plans for campaigns of exploration to the Arctic, Gulf of Mexico, and Southeast US Atlantic Bight as well as the slides from the orientation lectures about these regions, slides from the lectures about tools for geology, acoustics, biology, and telepresence, and the discussion papers prepared for the Forum.
A short press release describes the Final Report.
SuBastian and the Roboats . Pp. 28-31 in Final Report of the 2016 National Ocean Exploration Forum: Beyond the Ships 2020–2025. 2017 (Slightly abridged version published in Sea Technology 58(1):7, January 2017.)
Thanks to Amelie Walker Yung for the great site redesign and to Alan Curry for overseeing the entire NOEF project.
The Forum and its Report are fruits of the Monmouth University-Rockefeller University marine science and policy initiative.
Taipei Acer Meeting
On 4 January 2017, PHE Researcher Iddo Wernick delivered the keynote address ‘Creating a circular economy: The challenges and opportunities presented by Technology Metals for future business‘ kicking off a conference on the topic of Sustainable Resource Management organized by Acer Inc., in Taipei, Taiwan. Iddo also gave a talk on ‘Conflict Minerals and Tantalum’ from the perspective of Supply Chain managers in the electronics industry. Below are some pictures of the event.
Lux interview with Jesse Ausubel
Paul Kedrosky and Sam Arbesman of venture capital firm Lux posted a podcast in their Intersections series of an interview with Jesse Ausubel about energy and resources, transportation and food.