David Guerra
Mr. Porfido
Web & Design
5/1/15
Period 6

Is there anything laser can't do? From cutting diamonds to preserving endangered sites, all the way to building terrifying weapons and turning your eyes from brown to blue, there is apparently no end to the list of applications for laser. Swiss physicist Jean-Pierre Wolf is working on yet another impressive addition to that list: using focused laser beams to affect the weather. It sounds like black magic, but it's actually a cleaner version of cloud seeding, a form of weather modification that has been used for several years -- most famously by China in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, when they launched rockets to seed the clouds and prevent rainfall during the opening ceremony. But it's hard to tell how effective cloud seeding actually is, and it involves the spraying of chemicals into the atmosphere, something which it surely doesn't need. Laser is therefore a completely clean alternative to traditional cloud seeding: it's light, and nothing but light.

David Guerra

Mr. Porfido

Web & Design

4/24/15

Period-6

In 2001, the Taliban wiped out 1700 years of history in a matter of seconds, by blowing up ancient Buddha statues in central Afghanistan with dynamite. They proceeded to do so after an attempt at bringing down the 175-foot tall sculptures with anti-aircraft artillery had failed. Sadly, the event was just the first in a series of atrocitiesthat have robbed the world of some of its most prized cultural heritage. But historical architecture is also under threat from calamities which might well escape our control, such as earthquakes and climate change. The thought of losing a piece of our collective history is a bleak one. But if loss can't be avoided, technology can lend a hand. Now CyArk, a non-profit company founded by an Iraqi-born engineer, is using groundbreaking laser scanning to ensure that at the very least incredibly accurate digital versions of the world's treasures will stay with us forever. 

David Guerra
Mr. Porfido
WD
4/20/15
Period-6

In medicine, finding a substance that attacks cancerous tumors without destroying the healthy tissue around it has long been the Holy Grail.

From targeted remedies such as monoclonal antibodies to surgery, cancer has still managed to elude a treatment that discretely and separately attacks it alone.

Nanotechnologies, however the manipulation of matter at a molecular and even atomic scale to penetrate living cells are holding out the promise of opening a new front against deadly conditions from cancer to Ebola.