Apparently NASA has discovered the world’s first photosynthesizing human:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/food-03d.html
I can only suppose that either this is a complete fraud, or he has conditioned himself to survive on very little food and the caloric value of the liquids he drinks has been underestimated.
“I lie” said Hira Ratan Manek.
Amen, Lumpy. Smells like a stinking pile of dung to me.
I thought you had to be at least nominally intelligent to work for NASA?
I wouldn’t bet too much on this having actually happened. I’ve seen this story posted on various news sites in the last couple of days, and in all cases, the ONLY source is the Hindustan Times. I see no evidence that the organisations behind any of these secondary news reports have contacted NASA to confirm if this is true or not.
I survive solely on pornography. Can I work for NASA?
What?
NASA has around $15 billion dollars (cite) to throw around. Spending a thousand or so to investigate a “discovery” like this seems harmless, especially since it would, I assume, be extremely beneficial to the space program if it turned out that there was some truth to the man’s claims.
The guy is probably lying though.
Part of what they may actually be investigating is whether or not the man has some ability to survive and thrive on a severely reduced calorie diet - something that could really come in handy for long-term space missions, if it is possible to manipulate the metabolism to mimic this.
It may be complete crap, but people investigate many things for many reasons, some of them not obvious. A friend and colleague of mine went to an “Eastern European” country recently to evaluate a “perpetual motion” machine for a bank. Mainly, however, the bank wanted him to assess and catalogue the equipment in the lab, so they could see where the money was going. (The result - the machine didn’t work, mysteriously, when all the engineers showed up. And the lab was missing an awwwwwwful lot of gear…)
Further, of that $15 B, I seem to recall that a (tiny, tiny) portion is dedicated to researching really weird, improbable, probably impossible stuff just on the off chance that something useful might pop up. I’d do a search, as I think there was a thread or two in GQ about it, but I can’t even think about what to throw in the search engine besides “NASA.”
Perhaps someone who remembers the threads better could narrow the search?
That said, having only the Hindustan Times as a citation means that even if my memory is correct, it may not apply in this instance. Was the reporter named Jayson Blair Singh? 
Now, see, that’s true. It goes to research into things like this that aren’t completely ruled out by current theory, but that we don’t know how it works either.
OTOH there’s a point at which even Fox Mulder doesn’t believe, and I think this is it. It is odd that they’ve apparently verified his claims to some degree, but I’d need Randi on board before I’d believe it. Sounds suspiciously like Bretharianism to me.
Erhm thats pretty fucking impressive and it would be NASA logically is pretty damn intersted in how he did it.
Of course, it may also be that they were getting ten letters a week from the guy, and invited him to come “Demonstrate” his abilities primarily to just shut him the hell up.
Remember, you are talking about an organization which has R&D personnel dedicated to faster than light travel.
Some of the goofy shit NASA spends money on is image defense against the low-level loons. When Dan Goldin took over, one of the first things he wanted from the Mars orbiters was detailed, high-resolution photography of the “Face.” Not because he or anyone else at the agency thought there was a chance in hell it would turn up anything but an oddly-shaped rock formation. (And if you thought so, you’re on the wrong fucking board.) No, his rationale, which was accepted by folks like Sagan after some consideration, was that NASA is a public outfit, and as such has an obligation to investigate what might interest the people who are paying the bills. It’s too bad that said public is so stupid that a substantial portion of them believe in crap like ouija boards and astrology, but it’s in the agency’s interest to make sure people don’t think the eggheads and rocket scientists are too far out of touch with “ordinary” concerns, which means spending a tiny but much-discussed fraction of the budget on wingnuts and con artists. It’s sad, but it makes sense. Doesn’t bother me; it’s a far cry from, say, having a Lysenkoite at the helm.
Well, really, all you need is an empty storage closet, a damn good lock, and some time. By the end of a predetermined period you’ve either discovered something pretty important or let the invisible hand of Darwin take its course.
It doesn’t seem like a hard experiment to design.
I would be sceptical of the news story. It’s very easy for anyone to claim that “NASA are looking into this”, but until NASA say so themselves I wouldn’t be paying it much attention.
Even if NASA were investigating, they’re probably more interested in finding out how to survive on very little food or how to hide your lunch in your pocket.
Surviving on liquids isn’t that hard, is it? Last I checked the Guinness Book of World Records mentioned a Scotsman who lived for over a year on nothing but various beverages. If you can do it for a year, you should be able to do it for eight.
If “various beverages” includes soup, broth and porridge, you’ve covered a large proportion of scotlands cuisine.
Even failing that, if it covers booze then a quick look around my office would suggest that half the adult population here are trying to beat that record.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off for lunch.
Hey, the stuff in that link isn’t really all that “out there.” I heard Les Johnson (manager of the In-Space Propulsion Project at The Marshall Space Flight Center) give a talk on some of that stuff. I almost didn’t go. “Propellantless propulsion? What the hell?” But it was fascinating, and very cool. Not bizzare at all. They’re supposed to launch the ProSEDS Tether experiment this summer. I wouldn’t say it’s stuff they don’t know how it works, but stuff that works on paper, when you do all the math, but they’re not sure if it will work out in real life.
Here’s a site:
http://inspacepropulsion.com
As to the OP, I don’t think a story with the Hindustan Times as a single source can be a reliable account of what NASA is up to.
Hmmm. If I can hold my breath under water for 10 minutes, I should be able to hold my breath under water for ten years…
Ta-daaa !
I think not…
:rolleyes: