- Every now and then I get overwhelmed by a selection of great technology articles that really have no consistent theme. So this month I feature a smorgasbord of interesting finds I made over the past few months.Have you ever wondered why some people are ignored by mosquitoes and others are constantly bitten, this research suggests it could be due to microbes. And here is an idea to track malaria, a deadly disease spread by mosquitoes, with cell phones.
There is a new lightest material in the world, aerographite, replacing the old champion, graphene. But fear not graphene as scientists are finding new uses for you constantly, such as cooling electronics and a stretchable version.
Is there a way for plants to create nitrogen from the air? These researchers think so and if they are correct, this is a world-changing advancement. A plant-inspired coating may create self-cleaning glass – won’t that be great for windows! And can we create self-cooling windows by mimicking nature?
- Ah college football, it’s a shame the season isn’t another month long. As we ramp up for bowl season, here is a fun map to keep your interest peaked for the championship games. This map shows the average attendance of all teams that drew more than 40,000 fans per game in 2007. Thanks to Bill Turianski for putting this on BillSportMaps.com.
- Winter is here and well sweaters were on my mind when I Googled, “GIS and wool.” That lead me to this map of 2007 wool production in Texas – hmmm, wool in Texas? So from there, I found out that Texas is a leading producer of wool in the US and that back in the 1940’s, the US was a top 5 wool producer. You learn something new every day!
- From the Mountain West, we head to the flat lands of Illinois and explore the GIS resources of the windy city, Chicago. The city of Chicago has given consideration to experience GIS users as well as just map users on their site. For the GIS user, there are more than 260 data layers that can be accessed here. Some of the files here are in KML format so they can be opened in Google Earth by all interested parties. And for those looking to explore the City’s maps online, here is a viewer that can be queried by address with multiple layers of data to overlay.
Brock Adam McCarty
Map Wizard
(720) 470-7988
brock@apollomapping.com
Leave a Reply