official science and technology thread

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 12:25 am

The next chapter of manned spaceflight starts in about 5 hours. The first official test launch of a full (but unmanned) Orion capsule. This is the craft selected by NASA to take humans back to the moon and to asteroids within 10-12 years and to mars within 25. Huge rocket larger than the Saturn V being used. A lot of old Apollo memories being thrown around NASA.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... er-to-mars

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:28 am

Launch cancelled.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 9:30 am

going to try again early tomorrow morning

Post by **UAdevil** » Tue Dec 09, 2014 8:30 am

Lake in Mars' Gale Crater Adds Twist to Climate Story

The discovery that Mars' Gale Crater was once Gale Lake adds a powerful piece of evidence for an ancient wet and warm climate that lasted much longer than previous predictions. Now, if only the computer models would agree.

To account for a lake that lasted for millions or even tens of millions of years means the Martian atmosphere would have had to be not only far thicker than the puny envelope of gases that surrounds it today, but also loaded with water, said Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.

The Curiosity science team announced Monday that the 96-mile-wide crater where the rover landed in August 2012 was once a lake.

http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-l ... 141209.htm

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:27 am

Power Plant: One Small Leaf Could Electrify an Entire Home

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Powe ... 1301363422

Scientists at MIT have created what may be the first practical artificial leaf -- a device about the size of a playing card capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen and storing the energy in a fuel cell. Placing the leaf it in a single gallon of water in sunlight could produce enough electricity to supply a house in developing countries with its daily electricity requirement, according to researchers.

scumdevils86 · Post by **scumdevils86** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 9:28 am

azgreg wrote:Power Plant: One Small Leaf Could Electrify an Entire Home

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Powe ... 1301363422

Scientists at MIT have created what may be the first practical artificial leaf -- a device about the size of a playing card capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen and storing the energy in a fuel cell. Placing the leaf it in a single gallon of water in sunlight could produce enough electricity to supply a house in developing countries with its daily electricity requirement, according to researchers.

damn. that is amazing. but since it is a developing world home then that means it is probably 10% of the electricity your average american uses with 50 light bulbs, 3 tvs, 4 cell phones charging, 2 computers, a tablet, a stove, fridge, dishwasher, garbage disposal, washer, garage door opener, outdoor lights, jacuzzi, sex toys etc...

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:25 pm

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 7:15 pm

Small Planets, Ancient Star

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=32456

Finding planets around stars that are two and a half times older than our own Solar System causes a certain frisson. Our star is four and a half billion years old, evidently old enough to produce beings like us, who wonder about other civilizations in the cosmos. Could there be truly ancient civilizations that grew up around stars as old as Kepler-444, a K-class star in the constellation Lyra that is estimated to be fully 11.8 billion years old? It’s a tantalizing speculation, and of course, nothing more than that. But the discovery of planets here still catches the eye.

The just announced discovery and accompanying paper are the work of Tiago Campante (University of Birmingham, UK), who led a large team in the investigation. What we learn is that five planets have been discovered using Kepler data around a star that is 117 light years from Earth. These are not habitable worlds by our standards — all five planets complete their orbits in less than ten days, making them hotter than Mercury.

Are they sure it's not just 6,000 years old?

Catintheheat · Post by **Catintheheat** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:48 pm

Android just release it's now OS for my tablet today (ver 5.0.2 or Lollipop). I already like it better. It shows the weather and time on the lock screen. Plus it gives me the time until the device is charged. It's supposed to free up resources. I haven't had a chance to use it much yet.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 7:05 pm

This pretty cool.

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 7:15 am

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 6:19 am

Lets see. . .warp drive: check; photonic structures (aka lightsabres): check; now introducing. . .force fields: http://www.cnet.com/news/boeing-patents ... ce-fields/

As it is described, the system is not designed to prevent direct impact from shells or shrapnel; rather, it is designed to protect a target -- such as a vehicle or building -- from the damaging effects of shockwaves from a nearby impact.

The patent is for a shockwave attenuation system, which consists of a sensor capable of detecting a shockwave-generating explosion and an arc generator that receives the signal from the sensor to ionise a small region, producing a plasma field between the target and the explosion using lasers, electricity and microwaves.

Not quite Mass Effect or Dune type personal shielding but I'll take it.

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:03 am

Got some enemies out there, GWH?

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:32 pm

Puerco wrote:Got some enemies out there, GWH?

Megalomania dude, not paranoia.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:17 pm

China rolls out world’s first hydrogen-powered tramcar

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home ... 641716.cms

BEIJING: The world's first hydrogen-powered tramcar has rolled off the assembly line in China's eastern Shandong Province.

Liang Jianying, chief engineer of Sifang Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China South Rail Corporation, said on Thursday the new tram is the only hydrogen powered vehicle in the field and makes China the only country to have mastered the technology.

Hydrogen fuel cells are a new clean energy source, widely used in the automobile industry, but lagging behind in the field of rail transit. "It took two years for Sifang to solve key technological problems, with the help of research institutions," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Liang as saying without mentioning when the tram would be operational.

The tram can be refilled with hydrogen in three minutes and can then run for 100km at speeds as high as 70 kmph. "The average distance of tramcar lines in China is about 15km, which means one refill for our tram is enough for three round trips," Liang said, adding the overall running costs will be greatly reduced. Each tram has over 60 seats and can carry 380 passengers.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:29 pm

Maybe not the first.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/urba ... eiled.html

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

scumdevils86 · Post by **scumdevils86** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 12:54 pm

super cool... http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/31/health/an ... index.html

London (CNN)It might sound like a really old wives' tale, but a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon potion for eye infections may hold the key to wiping out the modern-day superbug MRSA, according to new research.

The 10th-century "eyesalve" remedy was discovered at the British Library in a leather-bound volume of Bald's Leechbook, widely considered to be one of the earliest known medical textbooks.

PieceOfMeat · Post by **PieceOfMeat** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 2:22 pm

very interesting, here's hoping it pans out

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:30 am

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150401.html

Explanation: How will cows survive on the Moon? One of the most vexing questions asked about space, scientists have spent decades debating this key issue. Finally, after extensive computer modeling and over a dozen midnight milkings, engineers have designed, built, and now tested the new Lunar Grazing Module (LGM), a multi-purpose celestial bovine containment system.

Daryl Zero · Post by **Daryl Zero** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:01 pm

https://news.yahoo.com/wound-healing-la ... 21223.html

Closing wounds and surgical incisions with a laser is a step closer to reality, Israeli scientists say.

The futuristic technique is better than current methods which damage tissue and can cause scarring, researchers from Tel Aviv University believe.

Head of the Applied Physics Department Abraham Katzir was behind the research. He says traditional stitches or more modern glues are inferior to his new method.

"Today most of the incisions that are made by surgeons are bonded using sutures or clips or chemical glues and there are problems with these methods. And we found that if you heat the incisions spot by spot by laser you can bond it without incisions and hopefully with very little or no scarring," he said.

Sutures have been used for thousands of years, but the researchers' handheld bonding device could replace them once the technique is refined enough to be used in human patients.

"The advantages of the procedure are that we can get bonding to be probably much stronger than with sutures. We hope that the scarring will also be less than with sutures and eventually we get the safety of the procedure to be better," said Ichilov Medical Center ophthalmic surgeon, David Versano.

Post by **UAdevil** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 1:55 pm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science ... verse.html

Mysterious 'supervoid' in space is largest object ever discovered, scientists claim
A supervoid has been discovered in the universe which is too big to fit into current models

Just sayin'...

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 10:27 am

Fucking Reapers. . .

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 10:35 am

At first blush that just goes way over my head. At second blush.....................it still goes way over my head.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 6:45 pm

Direct picture of an alien planetary system. HR8799. The star is blacked out in the center so the planet's could be seen. They look close together but that's because all the planet's are about 7-15 times as dense as Jupiter and the star is 50% larger than the sun. The planet's are all many astronomical units apart. Supposedly is a pretty young system which is also why they are so bright. But still, it's a direct picture of another system.

PieceOfMeat · Post by **PieceOfMeat** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 6:51 pm

That's cool.

scumdevils86 · Post by **scumdevils86** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 7:08 pm

Bruins01 · Post by **Bruins01** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 12:15 pm

ASUHATER! wrote:Direct picture of an alien planetary system. HR8799. The star is blacked out in the center so the planet's could be seen. They look close together but that's because all the planet's are about 7-15 times as dense as Jupiter and the star is 50% larger than the sun. The planet's are all many astronomical units apart. Supposedly is a pretty young system which is also why they are so bright. But still, it's a direct picture of another system.

This is really fucking cool.

For some contrast, here is the first-ever image of a hydrogen atom and its orbital structure:

It was taken in 2013.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 8:14 am

I'll just leave this here...

BMalo · Post by **BMalo** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:08 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCSFaZkvvIQ

I think of this every time I see the thread title.

Edit: I apparently dont know how to embed youtube videos.

catgrad97 · Post by **catgrad97** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:20 am

Here you go BMalo: "Norrrrmalllll VIEWWWWWW!" (or just use the embed code between the tags)

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:24 am

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 4:16 am

Guess I could have posted this in the Russia thread too...

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 8:19 am

http://gizmodo.com/ibm-just-cracked-one ... 1701173052

One of the many problems exhibited by the breed of future computers is that they exist in the delicate and fuzzy quantum world, using not bits but qubits—quantum bits. Each of these qubits can represent a 0, a 1, or—crucially—both, providing the ability to dramatically bump up computation speeds. When both exist at the same time on the quibit, they are related by what physicists call a phase relationship.

But in real quantum computers, errors can occur when a qubit holds both states: they can flip to being just a regular 0 or 1 (known as a bit flip), or the phase relationship can change sign (known as a phase flip). While there are already techniques in existence that can detect both errors, so far it’s been impossible to detect them both at the same time. That’s not much use, because you needed to be able to detect all errors for a quantum computer to work reliably. But researchers at IBM have cracked the problem. PhysOrg explains how:

The IBM Research team used a variety of techniques to measure the states of two independent syndrome (measurement) qubits. Each reveals one aspect of the quantum information stored on two other qubits (called code, or data qubits). Specifically, one syndrome qubit revealed whether a bit-flip error occurred to either of the code qubits, while the other syndrome qubit revealed whether a phase-flip error occurred. Determining the joint quantum information in the code qubits is an essential step for quantum error correction because directly measuring the code qubits destroys the information contained within them.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Fri May 01, 2015 5:58 am

Tesla unveils batteries to power homes

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32545081

US electric carmaker Tesla Motors has unveiled batteries that can power homes and businesses as it attempts to expand beyond its vehicle business.

Chief executive Elon Musk announced the firm would build batteries that store solar energy and serve as a back-up system for consumers during blackouts.

The device would allow consumers to get off a power grid or bring energy to remote areas that are not on a grid.

Tesla plans to start shipping the units to installers in the US by this summer.

In a highly anticipated event near Los Angeles, Mr Musk said the move could help change the "entire energy infrastructure of the world".

"Tesla Energy is a critical step in this mission to enable zero emission power generation," the company said in a statement.

The rechargeable lithium-ion battery unit would be built using the same batteries Tesla produces for its electric vehicles, analysts said.

The system is called Powerwall, and Tesla will sell the 7kWh unit for $3,000 (£1,954), while the 10kWh unit will retail for $3,500 (£2,275) to installers.

Energy comparison firm USwitch estimates that one kWh can power two days of work on a laptop, a full washing machine cycle or be used to boil a kettle 10 times.

Mr Musk said the company would partner with SolarCity to install the home batteries, but there would be more companies announced.

Mr Musk is SolarCity's chairman and largest shareholder.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Fri May 01, 2015 8:05 am

http://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall

Katzenfreund · Post by **Katzenfreund** » Sat May 02, 2015 7:34 am

84Cat · Post by **84Cat** » Sat May 02, 2015 11:32 am

How much though? The surprise was the price. It was lower than expected.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Wed May 06, 2015 11:32 pm

Sunset on mars taken by the curiosity probe recently

84Cat · Post by **84Cat** » Wed May 27, 2015 6:14 pm

'New species' of ancient human found

A new species of ancient human has been unearthed in the Afar region of Ethiopia, scientists report.

Researchers discovered jaw bones and teeth, which date to between 3.3m and 3.5m years old.

It means this new hominin was alive at the same time as several other early human species, suggesting our family tree is more complicated than was thought.

The study is published in the journal Nature.

The new species has been called Australopithecus deyiremeda, which means "close relative" in the language spoken by the Afar people.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32906836

Post by **UAdevil** » Fri May 29, 2015 8:23 am

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/2 ... 62942.html

FINALLY: Science Figured Out Where The Holes In Swiss Cheese Have All Gone

New research is poking holes in old thinking about Swiss cheese. Namely: Where do cheese holes come from, and where have they all gone?

Those questions have plagued Swiss cheese producers who, in the last 15 years, have seen the signature holes in their product decrease for no apparent reason. Thanks to Agroscope, a government-funded Swiss agriculture institute, we now know it all comes down to hay.

In a report released Thursday, Agroscope and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology revealed microscopic hay particles are believed to be responsible for the creation of holes in cheeses such as Emmental and Appenzell.

Cleanliness has increased in cheese-making facilities in the last 15 years, virtually eliminating the possibility for outside particles to enter the milk before it's converted into cheese and stored. That, in turn, has prevented Swiss cheese from developing its characteristic holes.

Agroscope spokesman Regis Nyffeler told The Telegraph the primary difference in cheese manufacturing methods has been "the disappearance of the traditional bucket" used during milking. Before, small amounts of hay would have entered the bucket; now, sealed milking machines send the milk straight to a filter.

Agroscope arrived at their newest hay-pothesis after taking multiple CT scans of cheese as it developed over a 130-day period, reports the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. The research overturns a prior theory, held since at least 1917, that concluded the holes were created by bacteria that produced carbon dioxide bubbles.

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 9:15 am

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Fri Jun 05, 2015 7:26 am

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 7:06 am

Drunk monkeys are the best...

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/anima ... 610-ghl4sq

pc in NM · Post by **pc in NM** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 7:23 am

Scientists Find Surprising Link Between Birth Month And Disease Risk
The Huffington Post | By Carolyn Gregoire

Posted: 06/09/2015 4:50 pm EDT Updated: 06/10/2015 1:59 am EDT

Scientists may make fun of astrologers for saying that your birth month exerts a profound effect on your personality and direction in life, but a new study finds them singing a similar refrain.

Data scientists at Columbia University Medical Center uncovered a surprising correlation between the month you're born and your risk of developing various health problems, including heart disease, viral infections and ADHD.

While the idea that your birth month can predict your health destiny might seem outlandish, the scientific community has welcomed the findings.

"The great thing about working in science is that scientists are incredibly open-minded people -- as long as you have the data to back up your claims!" Dr. Nicholas Tatonetti, assistant professor of biomedical informatics at the university and the study's lead author, said in an email to The Huffington Post. "When we present these results we are always careful to point out that birth month is a proxy variable for environmental exposures. It is well known that environment can be a very important factor in early development, especially when in the context of some particular genetic variants."

Catintheheat · Post by **Catintheheat** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 7:41 am

These are grains of sand magnified 250x

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:39 am

Titan Mimas and Rhea seen from the Cassini spacecraft

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 7:11 am

This is a great thread. Thanks for sharing all this stuff, guys.

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 7:42 am

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... p=83316652

Watch out, world. Toyota is heading back to the future.

The automaker has hinted it’s looking into flying cars. Now its Lexus luxury brand has actually built a working model of a hoverboard. That’s right, an actual working hoverboard. It’s real, but not for sale. Yet.

The board uses liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors and magnets, according to the Lexus website. The technology is already zooming around Toyota's home country. A Japanese railway company last year set a new world speed record using a magnetic-levitation train. Toyota tipped its hand a year ago that it’s been experimenting with this for cars.

scumdevils86 · Post by **scumdevils86** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 11:45 am

everyone get ready tonight! http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/30/technol ... index.html

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