This is from Andy Price’s email list;

As an executive recruiter, I have had the opportunity to network with you before, and appreciate your assistance on searches and in identifying qualified candidates for key positions.  My client in the Boston area, the world’s leading carbon nanotube electronics company (profiled by Scientific American in 2005 and picked as one of the “top ten” nanotechnology companies likely to go public by both Forbes and Nanotechnology Law and Business Journal) currently has openings for Postdocs, PhDs, and MS degreed individuals with expertise in the CNT arena, particularly those doing nanostructure electronics work.  These positions will require U.S. Security Clearances, so UScitizenship is mandatory.

If you are aware of ANY students (with CNT electronics experience) who will be available or graduating in June (or earlier), please feel free to alert them to these openings, and have them submit resumes/CVs to me at;

nickm AT wdsearch.com.

Thank You,

Nicholas Meyler
Ph (818)597-3200 ext. 211

So, if you qualify, what are you waiting for?  We NEED you to help get this show on the road… (Thanks, Andy)

Customer Service at the Discovery Channel seems to be akin to that of Yahoo and some other large organizations – non-existent.  They have not replied to repeated emails from me requesting information on their upcoming Space Elevator show.  However, browsing their website this evening, I found this trailer (which is quite cool) and a notice that the show will air as part of their 2057 series (as Dr. Edwards informed me) at 10:00pm.  I have no idea if that is Eastern time or whatever, but check your local listings for Sunday evening and I’m sure you’ll find it.  If/when I find more information on this show, I will post it.

One of the most interesting things on the video, IMHO, is in the very beginning when they show the earth-base.  There are 3 national flags shown on the launching platform, the flags of the USA, the European Union and China, with the Chinese flag taking center stage.  I doubt if this was a political statement by the creators, but is interesting nonetheless…

Update – the link I gave seems to work only sporadically.  If you go here, you will get to the Discovery Channel Beyond Home Page.  From there, click on the tab on the right – Video Search.  Enter “Space Elevator” (no quotes).  The trailer will be the first item shown.  You can click on the “Play clip” option and it should work for you…

On The Space Show tonight, Dr. David Livingston intereviewed Dr. Bryan Laubscher.  More on this in another post, but one of the topics that came up was a common question “What happens if the Space Elevator breaks?”  The idea has been (un)popularized in Science Fiction (Ben Bova’s Mercury and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy come to mind) that such an event would lead to a planet-wide catastrophe.  This is not true, of course, for the current vision of a Space Elevator – a ribbon to space, thinner than a sheet of paper.  Depending on where the break occurs, much of it may fly off into space, much may burn up in the atmosphere and some may fall to earth.

Blaise Gassend (a name you should know if you are interested in any of the technical aspects of Space Elevators) did some serious study into this matter, going so far as to create some simulations.  You can find them on this web page – they are most interesting.