Balloon Telescope | Vital Venom | Talking Tomatoes - The Convo Kit #6

Congrats on making it to the weekend! That thing you did with those people to solve the issue at the place was pretty cool.

Also cool: Forwarding this newsletter to your friends!

Join The Convo for weekly briefings to kick start your weekend!

Balloon Space Telescope

The SuperBIT telescope aims to snap Hubble-like space pics while suspended from a superpressure balloon. Launching next April, it will take photos and circumnavigate the Earth several times before landing for adjustments.

• Floating altitude: 25 miles

• Balloon size = football stadium

• Investigating dark matter

Similar to Virgin Galactic’s “space” flight, the SuperBIT isn’t actually going to space. But far enough to escape much of the light pollution and distortion that limits ground based telescopes.

An image of SuperBIT is available over on The Guardian.

Lethal Venom Saving Lives

Venom from the Fraser Island funnel-web spider contains a protein that can prevent death from a heart attack. This venom effectively stops a death signal triggered by lack of oxygen.

• Heart disease = global leading cause of death

• Drug candidate: Hi1a protein

• No superpowers discovered, yet

Blocking death signals gives patients and healthcare professionals more time to save lives. This cell signal delay also has the potential to aid in heart transplants by staving off cell death during the transfer.

Details and creepy spider pictures.

Talking Tomatoes

New study out of the University of Pelotas in Brazil indicates that tomatoes may communicate predator attacks.

• Attacks triggered plant’s defensive responses

• Electrical signals warn other plants during caterpillar attacks

• Signals studied with machine-learning

The study sought to determine if a fruit could warn its mother plant of an attack in order to save the rest of its siblings. Scientists hope to use this knowledge to improve crop yields and stifle pest infestations. No chance plants see humans as pests, right Mark Wahlberg?

Still hungry? Small bite. Big bite.

Cloud Tech, but it's Real Clouds

The United Arab Emirates wants to shock clouds with drones to reduce droughts. Specially designed drones enlarge water droplets with an electric charge in hopes they will remain intact until they hit the ground.

• UAE averages less than 4” rain annually

• Chemical-free cloud seeding

• Part of $15m investment into rain-enhancement

The concept of cloud seeding has been around since at least the 1890s, today’s technology gives more options to play with. Chemical-free solutions such as this are a preferred to chemical-based alternatives that risk polluting rain with carcinogens.

More details over on Interesting Engineering.

Floating Solar Panels

Singapore's Tengeh Reservoir now hosts a massive array of floating solar panels. The energy generated will power 5 local water treatment facilities.

• 122,000 panels

• 60 megawatts

• Offsets carbon emissions of ~7,000 cars

If the sun shines, but a panel isn’t around to absorb it, does it make energy? Floating solar panels offer yet another method for us to harness renewable energy and diversify energy generation.

Pics available in the article.

Thank you for reading!

If you found something cool to talk about, please share this newsletter with other awesome people!

If you are the awesome person this was shared with, we're excited for you to join The Convo!

What would improve this email for you?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Reach out on Twitter@_steveburgess or reply to this email.