More4 News Blog

No prizes for the Space Elevator

A couple of weeks ago we did a story about the Space Elevator - a hypothetical way of getting to space, by hanging a long cable from a satelite and sending lifts up and down it, writes Ben King.

It's a lovely idea, but it's slightly beyond the scope of modern technology to make it possible. But to encourage people to try and develop the technologies necessary, NASA has sponsored a competition.

That happened this weekend - university teams got together to see who could build the strongest cable, and the best robot to climb up it.

Sadly, none were quite good enough to claim the prize from NASA... But you can read the full story of the competition here. If you have no idea what we're talking about, it's probably best to watch our report first.

A new perpetual motion machine

Every so often someone says they've invented a perpetual motion machine. A clever arrangement of cogs. A jam-jar full of palladium and heavy water. Whatever the gadget, the claim is the same. They believe they have solved all mankind's problems with a simple gadget that produces free energy.

The latest in this proud succession of nonsense is an arrangement of magnets which puts out three times as much energy as you put into it.

The makers claim it would be a way of making mobile phones that never need charging. If it works, though, that will be the smallest of its applications. It will solve the energy crisis at a stroke. Global warming will become a distant memory.

It won't quite bring peace to the Middle East, but it will mean we no longer need their oil. So the West won't have to worry what about happens there - which could be the first step to sorting the whole mess out.

Only problem - it's utter rubbish. Guaranteed.

Are we guilty of Climate Change porn?

A piece of research kicking around this morning suggests that alarmist climate change language is tantamount to 'porn'

Doubtless we'll be discussing its implications at our 10am news meeting.

The study by the Institute for Public Policy Research, analysed more than 600 articles from the UK press as well as over 90 TV radio and press advertisements, news clips and websites to find out how the media, government and green groups are communicating climate change.

Simon Retallack, IPPR head of climate change, told Channel 4 News Radio's The Morning Report that coverage is typified by headlines like 'A World of Climate Change chaos spiralling out of control'.

"[Coverage] focuses on the impact at the exclusive almost of everything else" he said. "And those impacts are made to seem awesome, terrible, immense and the critical point is that they seem beyond human control. Given climate change is a problem we can address it seems counterproductive to give people the impression that there's nothing people can do about it."

You can subscribe to The Morning Report here. Picture Credit: Pyrator

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