Recent content by socean

While reading about von Mises distributions I wondered if the distribution of clusters such as galaxies could be related to the way they are being "mapped". Suppose we observing our universe from a particular perspective, perhaps described by something like a von Mises distribution, or other...

I do not think the carrying capacity of the Earth can be accurately predicted. One must take into account the effect of accelerating returns. We don't even know what humans will be like 30 years hence. How much of our physiology will be enhanced? My mother sees better than I do now thanks to...

Why not introduce bio-active particles that bind to hydrocarbons and each other, and also produce some kind of gas, e.g. methane that is trapped? Result: oil "coagulates" into jelly-like, huge blobs that float and can be collected.

How about oil eating bacteria that are attached to a substrate that absorbs output of metabolic reactions? Substrate would also serve to "bind" oil into floating jelly that can be more easily collected.

What about changing the physical properties of the oil so its easier to collect? E.g. particles or threads that are engineered to have oliophillic receptors to bind the oil into huge jelly-like globs. Maybe even introduce something that also produces some sort of gas so the globs really float to...