Mini-terraforming against tornados

There are regions in the world, also in the US, that are prone to devastating weather phenomena, such as tornadoes. There are probably numerous physical models attempting to describe this in the attempt to predict their formation. I propose using these models in an attempt to subverting them, not only predicting.

Some regions, even near those that are prone, have smaller probabilities of being harmed. I believe that one of the possible reasons is the landscape, such as hills, mountains and valley. These weather phenomena are highly dependent on air pressure, and change with height of the landscape. Furthermore, who has not heard of the "butterfly effect"? While its origin is in the chaos theory and it is usually misinterpreted, I want to deliberately make a "bad" use of it for this project.

I propose that a "sleight" change in landscape may cause a drastic change in the development, progression and severity of weather phenomenon, such as tornadoes. While I have no proof of this, I believe current models can, or should if they don't, analyze effects of changing altitude on such events. For example, given a known prone area, what would a small hill or a valley do to the formation and progression of a tornado?

Going one step forward, if/when such models exist, one can also try to optimize the process, by finding "what is the smallest change in landscape that could have a beneficial effect on the phenomenon, such as guidance or diminishing of magnitude?" In other words, if I could create a hill somewhere, where should I put it to guide a tornado out of residential or other important areas?

While this question seems bizarre, it has both scientific and operational significance. The science is that one could better understand the phenomenon by analyzing effects of landscape, which is a crucial (in my opinion) parameter on the dynamics. The operational one is somewhat more challenging. I have seen a "garbage mountain" that was several hundred feet high and a mile long. Furthermore, tunnels, highways and railroads completely change the landscape in drastic manners unfathomable a century before. I believe we now have the technology and the means to actually change the landscape of the environment around us. This is what I call "mini-terraforming": while it doesn't change the entire Earth habitat, I believe it can change some of it large factors, such as weather phenomenon.

Taken together, the optimizing landscape change for the mitigation of tornadoes and the ability to actually create or drastically change the landscape, I propose that a test be performed in the following manner:

a.       Take a tornado-prone area.

b.      Analyze the effects of possible landscape changes on the development and dynamics of tornadoes.

c.       Optimize landscape changes, i.e. what is the minimal change required to mitigate the devastation such a tornado does.

d.      Try to create/change the minimal landscape in the optimal position.

e. Wait for next tornado season and hope for the best.

The Fractal Gene

When you look at trees, cauliflower and blood vessels you can see an intricate pattern with a unique property called fractalness. In simple terms, a fractal is a pattern that when you zoom into it, the pattern reappears across all scales. Thus, for examples, each tree species has its own branching angle to its branches, smaller branches, leaves and veins within the leaves. Similarly, cauliflower has "bumps", wherein each bump has smaller ones with the same proportions deeper and deeper. Our blood vessels are also patterned in a similar fashion.

These biological properties of living organisms develop as a result of the genetic code. In each of our cells, we have a whole copy of our genetic code, and during development, and also in adulthood, patterns emerge according to "blueprints" in our DNA. Thus, each cell knows if to become a liver cell, an endothelial cell in a blood vessel or a neuron in the brain. The development of blood vessels, as well as sprouting of branches and leaves, is (mostly) dictated by the genetic code.

One can also look at it from an information point-of-view. Fractals are very "compact" information-wise, i.e. with a simple code, or formula, one can code beautiful intricate designs. The complex structure of a tree, from its trunk up to its leaves' veins, can be "coded" in a single gene that regulates the branching ratio in all these levels. Blood vessels might also conform to this strategy, to encode complex intricate webs in our body by a single (or a small number of) genes.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to discover this "fractal gene"? Is it a single gene for each species, dictating the branching ratio? Is it a single complex of genes across species, whose ratio in each specie dictate the emerging pattern?

Perhaps discovering this wondrous "fractal gene" can help designing complex artificial patterns. Maybe coding this ratio in the design of nano-structures, such as carbon nanotubes, will enable self-assembly of complex fractal patterns of tubes. Perhaps, even, these structures will be stronger and have unique properties.

One caveat to this hypothesis, though. Fractals appear even in inanimate objects, such as clouds, mountains and riverbeds. These amazing patterns emerge through interaction of complex phenomena, without any "guidance" of biological control. There is the possibility that tree-shapes, as well as our blood vessels architecture, are the emergent property of the opposing interaction of growth, resources and gradients of chemicals in their surroundings. Probably, as in all these gene-environment discussions, the answer is somewhere in the middle. Yet this implies that there is such a "fractal gene", and it might play a role in the buildup of some of the most beautiful structures in nature. 

Universal programming language

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of programming languages which, as proclaimed by their respective disciples, are "the best one". In this list one can include Python, Java, Ruby, Scala, c# and probably many more I didn't even hear of. Once one is familiar and adept in one language, the transition to another is usually not that hard, where one has to only learn the new syntax and some idiosyncrasies of that language.

I would like to propose a "linguistics" approach to this topic and try to compose, similar to Esperanto, a "universal programming language". Via research on the development of programming languages, one can, in complete analogy to spoken and written languages, learn the evolution of society, technology and hopefully to predict and analyze future directions of developments.

I recently encountered an amazing site, http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Rosetta_Code, in which a (rather) complete list of programming languages is detailed. The most amazing thing in this blessed endeavor, is that you can ask a question regarding programming, e.g. how to find if a file exists, and get the answer for more than 50 programming languages. A short comparison indeed shows that they are extremely similar in most respects, but have small modifications, alterations and quirks.

I think two interesting projects can evolve from such a Rosetta-code (probably both are currently underway or finished, but I unfortunately am unaware of them). The first is a language-to-language translator. Many coders are required to transform code from one language to another due to a new language appearing or a demand from a customer. Wouldn't it be nice if it could be made with a single click?

The second, more ambitious project is to create a "universal programming language". Combine all known programming languages under one common roof and allow one of two things: either attempt to make the "optimal" language under specific constraints, e.g. performance, ease of use, shortness of written commands, etc; or allow a completely customizable instantiation of novel languages - if a coder wants to enjoy all worlds such as performance of c and each of Ruby, why shouldn't she. She just open the "universal programming language" settings, choose level of performance and ease of programming and a novel easy-to-operate language is created.

I for one, would have enjoyed the results of both projects, so if you, reader, know of such things, I'd appreciate a reply/comment. Thanks.

Portable Motor

This post is more an idea of a product rather than a research project, but I think it's ok. There are many new and exciting projects that try to produce exo-skeletons, i.e. devices that are mounted on the body and supply power for lifting and moving large things. Their main usage is for handicapped people and military stuff. The product I'm suggesting is along these lines but at a much smaller scale and for everyday use.

The concept is that nowadays electric engines are becoming light and commonplace, as you can see in Segways, electric scooters and bicycles. They all have a small electric engine that mount on top and supply the juice for operating the vehicle. I want to propose a different usage for the same electric motor, namely, helping people move uncomfortable and heavy wheeled things over rough terrain, such as bad walkways and pavements. For example, old people or weak ones have trouble moving the loaded shopping carts from the supermarket or grocery store. Imagine that they have a portable small and light-weight (or even draggable) motor that they can easily attach to the shopping cart and thus help them move it. Mind you, this is not for speed, as the usage for the electric scooters, but simply supplying lacking power in "pushing" the cart.

Another example is a baby trolley for young mothers. Some pavements and gardens require maneuvering for a large trolley, especially for twins. Also, mothers after birth have less strength to carry the trolley (and the associated bags that come with it). Imagine that a simple engine is attached to the trolley and, like Segway, respond to the mother's directions and supply the juice for moving the trolley without any effort or strength.

As for marketing and pricing issues: if such engines can be mounted on kids' bikes, I'm pretty sure they are cheap and easy to operate. Adding some guidance mechanism for them should also not be an issue and since their usage is for short walks, as opposed to an electric car, their size can be small and they can be recharged easily.