The Cool Science Stuff Thread

[Peregrinator]

MacGuyver would be jealous! Damn is that impressive!

I can't wait to try it. I'm going to order a lens today.

Edit: I wonder if it will work with my digital camera. The camera is perfectly happy to focus through a regular microscope.

 

[stephen55]

CubeSats, the personal satellite...

Have you ever thought about having your own satellite zipping around the earth? Worried about not having the mega-millions to build, launch and operate your own satellite? Can't talk the Dean of Sciences at your university into funding your satellite research mission?

For as little as ten grand, it can be done...if your bird is a one liter cube (10 cm x 10 cm x10 cm), weighs no more than 1.33 kilos and can be made mostly from off the shelf components.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Ncube2.jpg
Ncube-2, a Norwegian Cubesat.

They're called CubeSats and the Feb. 2011 edition of Scientific American has a great article on them. A complete, functioning CubeSat can be assembled for as little as $7,500 using pre-made, standardized, off the shelf components.

They are packaged into a frame that can push them out into space once a rocket reaches orbit, "like the candy in a Pez dispenser". The frame hitches a ride into orbit using available unused space on an American or Russian rocket. Private companies are also getting into the game. "On December 8, 2010, several CubeSats were reported to have deployed successfully from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket,".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat

If your project won't fit into one cube, you can build it as a two-cube or a three-cube.

http://www.skyrocket.de/space/img_sat/canx-2__1.jpg

A company called Pumpkin in San Fransisco will sell you a complete kit.

http://www.cubesatkit.com/images/cubesat_kit_contents.jpg

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=...ockInc.:en-US:official&tbs=isch:1&um=1&itbs=1

Now how cool is that??

 

[Bacigalupo]

Whizzing through space, one last time.

http://www******.com/11109-astronaut-pee-shuttle-waste-water-dump.html

 

[stephen55]

Whizzing through space, one last time.

http://www******.com/11109-astronaut-pee-shuttle-waste-water-dump.html

On short trips into space, it makes sense to dump urine. However, for a trip to Mars and back, it would have to be recycled. (Blech!!)

I've read of an idea for radiation shielding that also manages solid waste (read; feces). Shielding from radiation over a long trip in space is crucial. The idea is that food supplies are stored just inside the hull, which would act as partial shielding.

Then comes the brilliant (?) part. Enter the "Easy Bake Oven" for feces. Solid waste is baked into tiles, which are used to make up for the depleting food stocks as shielding. Or as author Mary Roach put it...

“So you’d fly to Mars in a can of food, and then you’d fly home in a can of poop.”

 

[islandman]

Move over H.G. Wells...

Large Hadron Collider Could Be World's First Time Machine, Researchers' Theory Suggests

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110315163330.htm

 

[islandman]

Not empirical science, but look what we can create when we apply it:

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/porsche-981-spyder-confirmed-production-911-2011-03-21

http://www.topgear.com/uk/assets/cms/9494762e-3526-404c-803a-17844a9a1cf0/Large%20Image.jpg?p=110321_09:28

Porsche 918 Spyder: available to order

At this exact moment, deep in the loins of a Stuttgart factory, some Porsche engineers are sharpening their scalpels: the 918 Spyder is now available to order.

The show-stopping concept car which delivered a haymaker to the world's preconceived hybrid ideas will commence production on September 18, 2013. To ensure its exclusivity, just 918 models will be produced, with first customer deliveries expected in November that year.

 

[trysail]

A plea for a return to science...
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/20/a-plea-for-a-return-to-science-on-the-nuclear-power-issue/


Fukushima
By Dr Peter Heller
http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/physics/people/faculty/heller.html
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
Brandeis University
Ph.D., Harvard University, 1963

There’s no place on earth I would rather be right now than at Fukushima – right in the atomic power plant, at the centre of the event. I say this because I am a physicist and there is no other place that could be more exciting and interesting for a physicist. The same goes for many, if not most physicists and engineers, on the planet.

Already at a young age I knew one day I would study physics. As a boy, I received a telescope for Christmas, and from that point on my view was fixed on the night sky; gazing at star clusters, nebula and galaxies was my favourite preoccupation. It was only later that I learned that these lights and the twinkling in eyepiece were actually the expressions of a chaotic and violent force of nature – the direct conversion of matter into energy during the fusion of an atomic nucleus.


My curiosity carried me, as if on a high, through 10 semesters of study and subsequent graduation. It was a time of discovery that involved the tedious task of understanding. At times I felt exasperation and self doubt with respect to the sheer complexity and breadth of what there was to learn. Yet, there were times of joy whenever the fog lifted and the clarity and beauty of physical descriptions of natural phenomena moved in its place. It was a time that, unfortunately, passed all too quickly and is now some years in the past.

The great minds that accompanied me through my studies were Planck, Sommerfeld, Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, and a host of others who, for us physicists, are still very much alive today. They are great thinkers who contributed to unravelling the puzzles of nature and the forces which keep the world together through the most minute structures. I devoured the stories of Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, of Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller – to name a few – and on how they created completely new technologies from theoretical concepts, how the energy stored in the nucleus of an atom could be used for the good of man and how it became possible in a single process to tap into this source of affordable, clean and plentiful energy on a large scale as never seen by man. Electricity illuminates our world, drives our machines, allow us to communicate over great distances, thus making our lives easier and more comfortable. It is a source of energy that staves off poverty and enables prosperity.

Electricity: manufactured by splitting atomic nuclei with neutrons, gained through the direct conversion of mass into energy. It is the principle by which (via the reverse process of fusion) the stars twinkle in the night sky, a principle by which our sun enables life on our planet.

As a physicist it fills me with great joy and pride to see how man is able to rouse this force of nature at the most minute structural level, then amplify, control, and use it for our benefit. As a physicist I have the fundamental understanding of the processes – I can imagine them and describe them. As a physicist I have neither fear of an atomic power plant nor of radioactivity. Ultimately I know that it is a natural phenomenon that is always around us, one we can never escape – and one that we never need to escape. And I know the first as a symbol of man’s capability to steer the forces of nature. As a physicist I have no fear of what nature has to offer. Rather I have respect. And this respect beckons us to seize the chances like those offered by neutrons, which can split nuclei and thus convert matter into energy. Anything else would be ignorance and cowardice.

Dark times in history

There were times in history when ignorance and cowardice overshadowed human life. It was a time when our ancestors were forced to lead a life filled with superstition and fear because it was forbidden to use creativity and fantasy. Religious dogma, like the earth being the centre of the universe, or creationism, forbade people to question. The forbiddance of opening a human body and examining it prevented questions from being answered. Today these medieval rules appear backwards and close-minded. We simply cannot imagine this way of thinking could have any acceptance.

But over the recent days I have grown concerned that we are headed again for such dark times. Hysterical and sensationalist media reporting, paired with a remarkably stark display of ignorance of technical and scientific interrelations, and the attempt by a vast majority of journalists to fan the public’s angst and opposition to nuclear energy – pure witch-burning disguised as modernity.

Freedom of research

So it fills me with sadness and anger on how the work of the above mentioned giants of physics is now being dragged through the mud, how the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century are being redefined and criminalized. The current debate in Germany is also a debate on freedom of research. The stigmatization and ostracism of nuclear energy, the demand for an immediate stop of its use, is also the demand for the end of its research and development. No job possibilities also means no students, which means no faculty, which then means the end of the growth of our knowledge. Stopping nuclear energy is nothing less than rejecting the legacy of Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr and all others. It is tantamount to scrapping it, labelling it as dangerous – all in a fit of ignorance. And just as creationists attempt to ban the theory of evolution from the school books, it almost seems as if every factual and neutral explanation in Germany is now in the process of being deleted.

The media suggests a nuclear catastrophe, a mega-meltdown, and that the apocalypse has already begun. It is almost as if the 10,000 deaths in Japan were actually victims of nuclear energy, and not the earthquake or the tsunami. Here again one has to remind us that Fukushima was first hit by an unimaginable 9.0 earthquake and then by a massive 10-meter wave of water just an hour later. As a result, the facility no longer found itself in a highly technological area, but surrounded by a desert of rubble. All around the power plant the infrastructure, residential areas, traffic routes, energy and communication networks are simply no longer there. They were wiped out. Yet, after an entire week, the apocalypse still has not come to pass. Only relatively small amounts of radioactive materials have leaked out and have had only a local impact. If one considers the pure facts exclusively, i.e. only the things we really know, then it exposes the unfounded interpretations of scientific illiterates in the media. One can only arrive to one conclusion: This sorrowful state will remain so.

In truth, this does not show that the ideologically motivated, fear-laden admonitions and warnings were correct. Fukushima illustrates that we are indeed able to control atomic energy. Fukushima shows that we can master it even when natural disasters beyond planning befall us. Still, at Fukushima the conflict between human creativity/competence continues to clamour against the bond energy in atomic nuclei. It’s a struggle that that shows what human intelligence, knowledge gained, passion, boldness, respect, and capability to learn allow us to do. Personally this does not fill me with apprehension, but with hope. Man can meet this challenge not only because he has to, but most of all because he wants to.

Even though I have not practiced physics for some time now, I will never be anything other than a scientist and researcher, and there would be no other place I would rather be than on site at Fukushima. There is no other place at the moment where so much can be learned about atomic energy, which keeps our world together deep inside, and the technical possibilities to benefit from it. Do we have the courage to learn? Do we accept – with respect and confidence – the opportunities we are confronted with? Fukushima will show us possibilities on how to use the direct conversion of matter into energy in a better and safer way, something that Einstein and others could have only dreamed of.

I am a physicist. My wish is to live in a world that is willing to learn and to improve whatever is good. I would only like to live in a world where great strides in physics are viewed with fascination, pride, and hope because they show us the way to a better future. I would only like to live in a world that has the courage for a better world. Any other world for me is unacceptable. Never. That’s why I am going to fight for this world, without ever relenting.
————————————————–

Translated from the German, with the permission of Peter Heller, by Bernd Felsche and Pierre Gosselin. Original text appeared here: http://www.science-skeptical.de/blog/fukushima/004149/

 

[rosco rathbone]

Just to remind us of how insignificant we are:

That small white blob at the top of each frame is a fireball, roughly the size of our entire planet.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Impact_fireball_appears_over_the_limb_of_Jupiter.jpg

 

[John Doe]

Not empirical science, but look what we can create when we apply it:

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/porsche-981-spyder-confirmed-production-911-2011-03-21

http://www.topgear.com/uk/assets/cms/9494762e-3526-404c-803a-17844a9a1cf0/Large%20Image.jpg?p=110321_09:28

Porsche 918 Spyder: available to order

At this exact moment, deep in the loins of a Stuttgart factory, some Porsche engineers are sharpening their scalpels: the 918 Spyder is now available to order.

The show-stopping concept car which delivered a haymaker to the world's preconceived hybrid ideas will commence production on September 18, 2013. To ensure its exclusivity, just 918 models will be produced, with first customer deliveries expected in November that year.

Über-cool.

The future tastes fruity...

What?

 

[islandman]

Mechanical Engineer Explains the Secrets of the Wiffle Ball

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/st_alphageek_ballistics/

Wiffle balls are very poorly behaved. They curve wildly, practically bouncing around in midair. No surprise, given the eight holes molded into one side. But to learn how the little plastic balls twist and spin through space, the go-to researcher is Jenn Rossmann, a mechanical engineer at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, who specializes in how fluids, especially blood, circulate. In 2003, she started thinking that Wiffle balls might be more interesting for her students to study than the baseballs she’d been discussing in class. “It’s all about trying to trick them to do fluid mechanics, which I think is the most fascinating thing ever,” Rossmann says.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/wp-content/images/19-03/st_alphageek_ballistics_f.jpg

Cute mechanical engineer to boot!

 

[Bacigalupo]

Lennie looked sadly up at him. "They was so little," he said apologetically. "I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead—because they was so little. I wish’t we’d get the rabbits pretty soon, George. They ain’t so little."

http://www.vertpaleo.org/source/blo...-giant-extinct-rabbit-was-the-king-of-minorca

 

[Balladeer08]

Synthetic Telepathy?

Really?

Probably a misnomer, as it uses radio signals to transmit the info. But a great name, it fires the imagination.

Stunning to see that this is moving beyond being science fiction.

I am SO looking forward to the future! It just keeps getting better...

 

[islandman]

Synthetic Telepathy?

Really?

Probably a misnomer, as it uses radio signals to transmit the info. But a great name, it fires the imagination.

Stunning to see that this is moving beyond being science fiction.

I am SO looking forward to the future! It just keeps getting better...

Isn't that called 'remote viewing'?

 

[Colonel Hogan]

Just to remind us of how insignificant we are:

That small white blob at the top of each frame is a fireball, roughly the size of our entire planet.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Impact_fireball_appears_over_the_limb_of_Jupiter.jpg

I think this series makes the point even better.

http://aerospaceed.org/smallscale2.jpg

http://aerospaceed.org/smallscale3.jpg

http://aerospaceed.org/smallscale4.jpg

http://aerospaceed.org/smallscale5.jpg

 

[Balladeer08]

Isn't that called 'remote viewing'?

No, this is transmitting words from person to person. Well, soldier to soldier, as the Army is funding the research. It has nothing to do with remote viewing.

It is based on research they are doing to help handicap people move prosthetic limbs, etc.

Apparently they have it up to where it can distinguish between some simple vowel sounds when they are thought of.

Where it will be at in ten years, with ever more computer power to throw at it? Who knows?

But it is a VERY interesting concept. I can see where the Special Ops types would love to have it. Silence IS golden.

http://www.physorg.com/news137863959.html

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/08/army-funds-synt/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27162401/ns/technology_and_science-science/

 

[stephen55]

http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2009/04/15/1225699/200074-hand-of-god.jpg

Is this the hand of God?

No, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory captured this image of what looks like a massive hand in space. The ghostly structure is the result of high-energy X-rays emanating from the nebula around the PSR B1509-58 pulsar -- a small, dying star whose super fast spinning lights up its surroundings.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I think this series makes the point even better.

http://aerospaceed.org/smallscale2.jpg

http://aerospaceed.org/smallscale3.jpg

http://aerospaceed.org/smallscale4.jpg

http://aerospaceed.org/smallscale5.jpg

I love scale stuff like that.

My favorite part of the Natural History museum in NYC is the scale exhibit that goes from the observable universe down to the quark using the plantarium sphere as a reference.

 

[Bacigalupo]

Astronomy is for squares, man!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110323.html

 

[rosco rathbone]

Baby Genius:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelo...r-old-astrophysics-prodigy-the-skys-the-limit

 

[islandman]

Baby Genius:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelo...r-old-astrophysics-prodigy-the-skys-the-limit

A bit more in-depth:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011103200369

 

[rosco rathbone]

A bit more in-depth:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011103200369

It would be a trip if he invented some new form of math or physics and no grownups could even understand him.

 

[neci]

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kp5jvvyC7d1qzn3qto1_500.jpg

 

[neci]

http://26.media.tumblr.com/Kchp7uYLjpk3iqiauISLQejLo1_500.jpg

 

[neci]

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_litskunCUb1qen74yo1_400.jpg

 

[islandman]

Evidently Steven Chu, current Secretary of Energy and former Nobel Prize co-winner in 1997, designed the well cap that ultimately sealed last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill.