A lost #GoPro attached to a weather #balloon launched near the #GrandCanyon in 2013 finally found its way back, with videos and pictures from space. - http://clapway.com/2015/09/13/gopro-falls-to-earth-with-space-footage-101/

A lost GoPro attached to a weather balloon launched near the Grand Canyon in 2013 finally found its way back home and brought back videos and pictures from space.

GoPros are usually used to record wild stunts or adventurous group holidays. This time it’s different.

LOST GOPRO FOUND ITS WAY BACK HOME

Two years ago Bryan Chan and a few of his friends attached a 3D-printed chassis housing a GoPro, a Sony camcorder and a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 to a weather balloon. They hoped to record some breathtaking footage but they never thought they would actually find photos of the Grand Canyon from the stratosphere.

Since the beginning, things didn’t go according to the plan. Chan and Co. expected for months a text from their AT&T phone with the location of the landed cameras. That message never came and they considered their devices lost forever.

“The coverage map we were relying on was not accurate,” wrote Chan in a Reddit post. “The phone never got [a] signal as it came back to Earth, and we never heard from it.”

TWIST OF FATE

But two years later the GoPro was found by a woman as she was hiking in the area. What’s even stranger is that the trekker works for AT&T.

“…in a twist of ironic fate, a woman who works at AT&T was on a hike one day and spotted our phone in the barren desert. She brings it to an AT&T store, and they identify my friend’s SIM card. We got the footage and data a few weeks later!,” Chan revealed.

Here’s the video of the GoPro trip to space. Enjoy.

(NOT SO) LOST GOPRO FOOTAGE FROM SPACE

From Neil Armstrong’s small step to Chris Hadfield’s David Bowie impression, videos have often transmitted what’s it like to be an astronaut is space, Wired reports.

Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, recently shared a video of a GoPro camera strapped to a metal fairing on a Falcon 9 rocket which captured incredible footage as that part of the rocket fell back to earth.

Perhaps not surprisingly, they chose Johann Strauss II’s “Blue Danube” from 2001: A Space Odyssey as the soundtrack.

Have you ever come across a lost GoPro space footage that you would like to share?

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PARENTS: EVER THOUGHT ABOUT YOUR KIDS’ FUTURE?

Lost GoPro Falls Back to Earth With Space Footage

Mercury is Now Threatening the Grand Canyon #grandcanyon #coloradoriver #mercury - http://clapway.com/2015/08/26/mercury-the-grand-canyon123/

Scientists have recently discovered that high levels of mercury and selenium exist in Grand Canyon fauna. According to a new study, the chemical levels were discovered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and were published in a report in the Environmental Toxicity and Chemistry journal.

HOW THE MERCURY IS REACHING THE GRAND CANYON

Researchers have said that the mercury, aside from being partially the product of air pollution in the region, originates from Lake Powell’s algae, which eventually comes to the Grand Canyon carrying the neurotoxin with it, according to Discovery News. The amount of selenium and mercury found in the Grand Canyon’s food webs are far beyond levels that indicate a threat to the wildlife. Unfortunately, managing the level exposure is difficult because the sources of the chemicals “extend far beyond Grand Canyon boundaries,” David Walters, the study’s lead author and USGS ecologist, told Discovery News.

RAINBOW TROUT IS STILL EDIBLE

At high levels, mercury is dangerous for human consumption. However, the mercury levels in the fish studied was actually below the threshold that makes consumption dangerous. Rainbow trout, the species most commonly studied by the researchers, contained mercury levels deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency to be acceptable for eating.

“Every fish we looked at from Glen Canyon was way below any risk threshold and the fish we looked at downstream were way below that threshold as well, so it doesn’t appear to be any risk to humans through consumption of trout,” Ted Kennedy, one of the study’s authors, told the AZ Daily Sun.

HOW THEY STUDIED IT

Scientists analyzed data from sites by the Colorado River, which passes through the Grand Canyon and influences its ecosystem. They measured the selenium and mercury levels in fish and other species.

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF MERCURY IN THE GRAND CANYON

Mercury has an extremely negative influence on wildlife. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) defines the chemical as a “highly potent neurotoxin that impacts the function and development of the central nervous system in both people and wildlife.” You can read more about its effects on mammals, fish and birds on the NWF’s website here.

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Let us do our part in conserving and preserving the beautiful nature that surrounds us:

Mercury is Now Threatening the Grand Canyon