Maybe we're not all going to die (of global warming)

I suppose it was only a matter of time before I wrote something about global warming, seeing as it's only The Most Pressing Scientific Challenge of Our Time. And what with Al Gore trouncing around theaters near you spreading the message of gloom and doom ... how could I resist?

For this month's CITRIS Newsletter, I got to learn and write about two projects that are trying to do something about the problem. Helios, a Lawrence Berkeley Lab endeavor, is looking to create the fuel of the future. Hint: It will probably grow in fields.

Check it:
Among Helios's more far-reaching visions are 40-cents-per-gallon gas made entirely from carbon-neutral biomass; fields of self-fertilizing plants destined to become fuel; colonies of green algae and cyanobacteria bio-engineered to produce fuels at higher efficiency; self-regulating and self-repairing organic solar panels; and nature-inspired synthetic catalysts that would convert sunlight directly into fuel.
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Of course, fields of corn bioengineered to practically turn themselves into gas is a ways off. In the meantime, we've got good old fashioned combustion. Trying to improve the way research is done so combustion scientists can reduce the harm caused by burning fossil fuels is the subject of my second CITRIS article.
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New article: Math meets art

My article on aesthetic computing, "Drawing Art Into the Equation," is out in the July issue of Edutopia. As a young student, I often excelled at math, but as a creative person, I never much cared for it. So I was excited to learn about this new technique in teaching which blends art and math. Here's a snip from the intro:

Paul Fishwick, the University of Florida computer science professor who developed the aesthetic-computing method, says his inspiration came from popular culture. He wanted to do for math what the 1982 Disney film Tron did for computer science. With its then-cutting edge graphics and its action-heavy plot about a hacker overriding a malevolent operating system, it made a previously dry and impenetrable field of study visual and exciting. "If we have the capability of doing some of these fantastic things with technology, such as the immersive environments and 3-D graphics for entertainment purposes, why are we still programming and doing math by scratching with pencil on paper, much the same way we did 2,000 years ago?" Fishwick asks.

Surprisingly, aesthetic computing requires no expensive software or even a computer. It's so flexible, in fact, that it can be used just as effectively for learning basic middle school prealgebra as university-level programming courses.
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