me=mc2

Emil Cioran

Earth’s ‘technosphere’ now weighs 30 trillion tons, research finds

• The planet’s technosphere now weighs some 30 trillion tons - a mass of more than 50 kilos for every square metre of the Earth’s surface

• Numbers of technofossil ‘species’ now outnumber numbers of biotic species on planet Earth

• Technosphere includes physical human-made structures such as houses, factories, smartphones, computers and landfill

“The technosphere is a major new phenomenon of this planet - and one that is evolving extraordinarily rapidly” - Professor Mark Williams, University of Leicester

An international team led by University of Leicester geologists has made the first estimate of the sheer size of the physical structure of the planet’s technosphere - suggesting that its mass approximates to an enormous 30 trillion tons.

The technosphere is comprised of all of the structures that humans have constructed to keep them alive on the planet - from houses, factories and farms to computer systems, smartphones and CDs, to the waste in landfills and spoil heaps.

In a new paper published in the journal The Anthropocene Review, Professors Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams and Colin Waters from the University of Leicester Department of Geology led an international team suggesting that the bulk of the planet’s technosphere is staggering in scale, with some 30 trillion tons representing a mass of more than 50 kilos for every square metre of the Earth’s surface.

Professor Zalasiewicz explained: “The technosphere is the brainchild of the USA scientist Peter Haff – also one of the co-authors of this paper. It is all of the structures that humans have constructed to keep them alive, in very large numbers now, on the planet: houses, factories, farms, mines, roads, airports and shipping ports, computer systems, together with its discarded waste.

“Humans and human organisations form part of it, too - although we are not always as much in control as we think we are, as the technosphere is a system, with its own dynamics and energy flows – and humans have to help keep it going to survive.”

The Anthropocene concept – a proposed epoch highlighting the impact humans have made to the planet – has provided an understanding that humans have greatly changed the Earth.

Professor Williams said: “The technosphere can be said to have budded off the biosphere and arguably is now at least partly parasitic on it. At its current scale the technosphere is a major new phenomenon of this planet – and one that is evolving extraordinarily rapidly.

"Compared with the biosphere, though, it is remarkably poor at recycling its own materials, as our burgeoning landfill sites show. This might be a barrier to its further success – or halt it altogether.”

The researchers believe the technosphere is some measure of the extent to which we have reshaped our planet.

“There is more to the technosphere than just its mass,” observes Professor Waters. “It has enabled the production of an enormous array of material objects, from simple tools and coins, to ballpoint pens, books and CDs, to the most sophisticated computers and smartphones. Many of these, if entombed in strata, can be preserved into the distant geological future as 'technofossils’ that will help characterize and date the Anthropocene.”

If technofossils were to be classified as palaeontologists classify normal fossils - based on their shape, form and texture – the study suggests that the number of individual types of 'technofossil’ now on the planet likely reaches a billion or more – thus far outnumbering the numbers of biotic species now living.

Happy Birthday, Michael Collins!

While humans have been dreaming of flight since the dawn of time, it wasn’t until the turn of the nineteenth century that the Wright brothers achieved that magical 59 second flight covering 852 feet, skimming over the beach not more than twenty feet off the ground. The new science of flight and aeronautics was born and after thousands of years of dreaming about flight, it only took another two and a half decades to coin the term astronaut (and the related cosmonaut) and set the bar higher for flight. A combination of two Ancient Greek words aster meaning star and nautes meaning a sailor, an astronaut was a sailor of stars.

More than that though, these early pioneers of both space and technology became heroes of popular imagination.  They inspired generations of young boys and girls into science and technology and the technology derived from the space program has enriched our everyday lives from breakfast foods to automobile safety.

Today is the birthday (born October 31, 1930) of astronaut Michael Collins, the ‘third’astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission.  In the forty plus years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the moon, Michael Collin’s has been called the loneliest human alive as he waited in the capsule orbiting the lunar surface.  Quite the contrary, Collins says:

Far from feeling lonely or abandoned, I feel very much a part of what is taking place on the lunar surface. I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have. This venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two. I don’t mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon, I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side.

Starry Galaxies Collection is now available on Cosmic Stickies!

Watch The Founder of Girls Who Code Perfectly School Trevor Noah On Why Culture Makes Or Breaks Women In Tech

On The Daily Show with Trevor Noah guest Reshma Saujani, an Indian-American lawyer and politician, discussed the initiative to encourage young women and girls to pursue studies and careers the booming tech field, where they are falling behind. But there are two moments in a girl’s life where we can reverse the trend.

This is important, because it reverses what we assume is the direction of the narrative. The PERCEPTION of coding had to change first before the job itself could change. Coding was always difficult, technically skilled and demanding work, but until it was seen as such, it remained “women’s work”. We see the same with roles today that are seen as “feminine” - nursing, for example, is incredibly challenging skilled work, but as soon as it is seen as such it becomes specialised care, which then becomes professional and masculine (and higher paid).