The Ultimate Goal

What a journey lies ahead of us! A few years ago, the National Academy of Engineering released a list of what world-famous thinkers and innovators considered to be the greatest challenges of the 21st century. The NAE used the list both to educate future generations the kinds of problems that currently exist in the world and to compel them to create a better, more sustainable civilization. G. Pascal Zachary, a professor of practice at the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes at Arizona State University, further argues in his IEEE Spectrum Opinion contribution "Why Engineers Must Try to Save the World" that engineering, not pure science alone, is a necessary component in resolving all these issues. Science, unlike engineering, he argues, does not always produce "professionally competent" individuals, which is so important in today's society. Per Zachary,

 "Competence is crucial. After all, the human response to the planet’s seemingly difficult situation must, above all, work. Adaptations and interventions that forestall or remedy or extinguish the ultimate lethal threats, such as catastrophic climate change, an exotic pandemic, or a mysterious collapse in large-scale agriculture can always be moral or immoral, normative or not, sublime or ugly, inspirational or dour. But adaptations and interventions aimed at saving the world as we know it, or want it to be, must work. Pragmatism rules. Or if failure is an essential experience, even our technoscientific failures must reflect the core competence that the practice of engineering holds in the highest of regards."

Science is not responsible for that, and therefore, the fruits of science may not always be as conscious of society as the developments in engineering. Zachary also cites Henry Petroski's The Essential Engineer and the argument "for the central role of engineers in helping societies cope with urgent environmental and sustainability problems." He emphasizes the importance of being a competent professional - an engineer, technically-minded, with a very complete understanding of life, the world, and its people, for

"If engineers lead the way, they will not march alone. Rather, as Petroski recognizes, engineers must "be connected with the cultures of the humanities and social sciences." In the end, 'messianic' engineers will work alongside scientists, but also physicians and social workers and priests and poets."

All must band together, strive to understand one another, and work toward remarkable, innovative solutions to NAE greatest challenges of the 21st century and all the challenges that await us in the future. SIC ITUR AD ASTRA!

The Oblivious Accomplices

There will be no subpoenas, hearings, or trials, and none of us will be charged with a crime - although we may have just committed one. The story of "The King of Spam" Oleg Nikolaenko comes to us from NPR's American Public Media (APM) podcast named Future Tense. Nikolaenko, who received his nickname soon after he went into the spam business, has been recently arrested by federal authorities in connection with the violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. More simply, Nikolaenko is accused of generating of over one-third of the world digital spam, for profit, of course, through a massive "botnet" network referred to as "Mega D." Thousands of computers were supposedly hacked and made to "carry out the spamming, unbeknownst to [their] owner[s]." These computers are located all over the world, so theoretically, the ones you and I are using now could be affected, so technically, we could partly responsible for the crime too. Too bad, there is nothing we can do about that, as the hackers made sure to exploit only low-level processing capacities and other small-scale unused computing functionality using very efficient, stealthy software, which means that average users will have a very hard time detecting the hack. In fact, unless you are a very experienced programmer and computer scientists who knows where to look, you won't be able to find the problem. So, whatever Oleg Nikolaenko allegedly did to our computers will probably stay with our computers for a while longer, which brings us to the bad news - spam will stick around. However, there are some good news as well, per Patrick Peterson, Cisco fellow and chief security researcher, "It's important to realize that in some of these cases, the arrests may seem more like petty crimes done on a massive scale. These are the same techniques used to infect our government computers by foreign state actors, used for industrial espionage, used to infect our accountants and people in finance to empty out bank accounts. So, every botnet that gets shut down doesn't just mean less spam in our inbox, it also means a lot less other more damaging crimes will not be committed." From now, Oleg Nikolaenko is in custody, which means we are one step closer to a more secure internet.

The Cost of Clean Energy

With the capacity to produce around 35,000 megawatts, United States is, as of 2008, the largest wind power consumer in the world. Currently, about 2% of the electricity used in the United States is generated by wind turbines. Electric cars, in turn, help reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 30%, given the present-day U.S. energy mix. Less than 1% of the population is driving an electric car today, but the trend is becoming more and more popular. These some of the most remarkable developments in technology, and some day, they will keep our planet clean and well-maintained. That is not the case now, because wind turbines and electric vehicles are just two of a whole large set of technologies that use rare earth metals. Rare earths are "'large permanent magnets make the generators feasible,'" and they are starting to worry both the academia and the business world. Used in "computers, screens, superconductors, oil refineries, hybrid or electric vehicles, catalytic converters, compact fluorescent light bulbs, light-emitting diodes, lasers, audio speakers and microphones, cell phones, MRI machines, telecommunications, battery electrodes, advanced weapons systems, polished glass, and even [some] electric motors," rare earths are used to generate electricity which key to many of these inventions, including clean-energy technologies, like wind turbines and electric cars. Ironically, however, these metals are causing a lasting environmental impact. Rare earths have to be mined, a process which often destroys natural environments and creates dangerous working conditions. Then, the metals have to be separated for industrial use by a process of "intensive boiling with strong acids" which dissolves the metals out of the ore rock. The acids used are highly toxic, and these acids also dissolve the radioactive materials often located near and around the rare earths releasing deadly particles into the atmosphere. Another problem is that these metals do not regenerate quickly enough, so as more and more electric vehicles appear on the road, more and more rare earths must be harvested. We are running out of these metals very quickly, which is why U.S. Department of Energy and General Electric have been tinkering with these compounds in order to create efficient methodologies to mass-produce them synthetically. Research continues, but it is clear that "rare earths [materials problem] won't be solved anytime soon." While I was always fully aware of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy in the universe is always increasing with time and explains the notion of irreversibility in nature, I never realized how much of an impact it has on real life. Rare earths are a perfect example of humans overcoming great challenges and partaking in great innovation in an attempt to create order in the universe and failing in certain scopes of doing so. The challenge stands for a new generation of thinkers to solve, and I hope some day soon, despite all odds, we will be able to say with confidence - "We now know how to solve this problem."

The Social Network for Charities

Can internet make the world better? Chris Hughes, one of the founder of Facebook and President Obama's chief digital campaign manager, seems to think so, as he has recently founded Jumo, a social network that "aims to connect people with nonprofits and charitable organizations." This project's journey to success is just beginning. Offering contact with a variety of non-profit organizations on a variety of issues - ranging from hunger to environmentalism to gay rights, the website is predicted to create one of the biggest volunteer bodies in the nation. Since most people already support various organizations through online donations, the transition will be easy. Plus, tons of user reviews on the charities will be available for people to see all over the world, which means more people will be able to find and to donate to causes they are passionate about - that is not to say that Jumo's main purpose is to solicit donations. It's not; it is really about "deepen[ing] ties between...users and their favorite causes." Success of a social network like that would mean not only that people would be able to stay connected but also that people would be helping the world - through donations, volunteerism, and activism. Finally, non-profits, even those that have not had the chance to advertise on large scale would be able to connect with their supporters. The potential is remarkable, but the question stands - will followers of non-profit organizations translate into volunteers and donors?