How do you drive a rover on Mars? The latest rover to land on Mars, Curiosity, represents a huge leap forward in technology for exploring the planet. At 875 kilograms and ten feet long, it is about twice as long and five times as heavy as NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which … Continue reading
Tag Archives: technology
Something wiki this way comes…
What are the most visited websites in the world? To answer this question, many of us will refer to Wikipedia. While the site hasn’t quite achieved the stratospheric heights of Facebook and Google, it is rarely out of the top ten. “Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the … Continue reading
Precipitating a crisis?
Hosepipe bans are becoming a familiar feature of summer, and with claims that 2012 could see ‘the worst drought in 30 years’, they are here again. Well timed, then, that the theme of a recent Geological Society conference was “Water Futures”. There is often confusion and misunderstanding about water supply in the UK and elsewhere, … Continue reading
Communicating geology in the digital age
When the news broke on Friday that a new Icelandic eruption could be on the way, it didn’t take long for it to spread. This hasn’t always been the case. In its early years, the physics of geological communication was simple – involving nothing more than oscillations of pressure transmitted through a gas – talking. Continue reading
Metals, Mines and Mobiles
How many mobile phones do you own? According to the Director of the National Metals Technology Centre, Andrew McLelland, by the end of this year there will be as many mobiles in existance as there are people – technically one each, but of course it doesn’t work out quite like that. If you do have … Continue reading