Gizmorama - November 4, 2015

Good Morning,

If you're in Indonesia and your internet speed is less
than satisfactory, please, don't worry, help is on the
way. Actually, it's help in the way of helium balloons
provided by Google. I'm sure that this idea has Google
floating on air.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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* Google to improve Internet access with balloons *
JAKARTA - Google announced Wednesday a plan to deliver high-speed Internet connectivity to remote areas of Indonesia using helium balloons.

The effort, dubbed Project Loon, involves a partnership between Google and three Indonesian Internet service providers -- Telkomsel, Axiata and Inmost -- that will deliver LTE connections to places where fixed line service is unavailable.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin told spectators at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. that although "occassionally" leaving the reach of communications infrastructure is "healthy for all of us," being unable to communicate with others due to a lack of Internet connectivity on a daily basis is "a real disadvantage."

Research firm eMarketer says 29 percent of Indonesians have Internet access, and slow access at that. Connectivity is further hindered by a thinly spread population across thousands of islands, complicating underwater cable construction and forcing locals to rely on Internet delivered by satellite. Satellite installations are too costly for certain communities.

Google and its project partners will spend 12 months testing the helium balloons prior to rolling out a final product. Mobile operators will bill customers and Google will be solely responsible for constructing the balloons. Users with a mobile device will be able to connect and experience speeds of up to 10 megabits per second.

However, only 23 percent of the country's population owns smartphones, so many people may remain disenfranchised.

Project Loon leader Mike Cassidy said "many hundreds of balloons" floating approximately 12 miles above the ground will be needed to cover the country. Each balloon will provide Internet service up to 24 miles from its position.

The country's largest telecommunications company, Telekomunikasi -- which is not working on the project with Google -- criticized the company's effort, saying it undermines its own work in fiber-optic networking.

Project Loon was originally shown in New Zealand in June 2013 by the innovative Google X division. Companies in Sri Lanka and Australia have also invested in the technology.


*-- UN scientists insist ozone is recovering despite huge hole --*
GENEVA, Switzerland - Scientists have spotted a near-record hole in the Antarctic ozone layer.

On Thursday, the World Meteorological Organization, the UN's weather agency, blamed the larger than usual hole on "colder than usual high-altitude (stratospheric) meteorological conditions."

Earlier this month, the hole measured 28.2 million square kilometers, or just over 10 square miles, in size. It's the third largest ozone hole in history, after record-breaking holes in 2000 and 2006.

Despite the hole's expanded size, researchers say the ozone's continued recovery is not in jeopardy.

"This shows us that the ozone hole problem is still with us and we need to remain vigilant. But there is no reason for undue alarm," said Geir Braathen, a senior scientist with WMO's Atmospheric and Environment Research Division.

Prior to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, ozone-destroying chemicals, chiefly chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), were unregulated and widely used as a refrigerant and in aerosol cans. In the decades since, the ozone has slowly regenerated. But CFCs and other pollutants that are converted to ozone-eating chlorine at high altitudes can remain in the atmosphere for decades. Scientists say it may be another four or five decades before chlorine levels in the stratosphere return to normal levels.

The ozone is a thick belt of trioxygen, or O3, a highly reactive oxygen molecule helps protects the Earth from ultraviolet solar radiation. Some scientists believe it was key in enabling the development of life, as ultraviolet radiation damages DNA. O3 exposure can cause skin cancer in humans and is disruptive to single-celled organisms like phytoplankton, also known as microalgae.

Ozone depletion is typically most dramatic in the spring, when the stratosphere is coldest and the sun hits the polar region more directly, freeing chlorine radicals that eat away at the ozone.

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