A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: science

Oct 13 2011
Mark Twain, probably

NASA testing suitcase-sized nuclear fission reactors to power off-world colonies

NASA testing suitcase-sized nuclear fission reactors to power off-world colonies

Tina Casey, writing for TPM’s Idea Lab blog:

James Werner, who manages reactor technologies for the Space Nuclear Systems division at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory, described the new system Sunday at the 242nd Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver.

Describing the new technology at the conference, Werner said: “People would never recognize the fission power system as a nuclear power reactor. The reactor itself may be about 1-1/2 feet wide by 2-1/2 feet high, about the size of a carry-on suitcase. There are no cooling towers.”

The system would provide energy for outposts or colonies on land where solar power is impractical. Unlike photovoltaic cells, a fission system could operate on the dark side of moons or the polar areas of planets, in caves or shaded craters, and in stormy and dusty conditions such as those on Mars.

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Oct 08 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Spain’s round-the-clock solar power plant

Spain’s round-the-clock solar power plant

Solar power is pretty awesome, except for that whole thing where it only works when the sun is out.

Well, that used to be the case, but Al Goodman of CNN has news for you:

Located just outside the quaint village of Fuentes de Andalucía, Gemasolar bills itself as the world’s first commercial-scale concentrated solar power plant (CSP) that uses molten salts receiver technology.

2,650 large mirrors called heliostats direct the suns rays to a receiver at the top of Gemasolar’s 450-feet tower that shines like a beacon during the day.

The stored energy can generate electricity for 15 hours without the sun shining and according to Arias the plant can provide 19.9MW of power, enough for a town of about 100,000 people.

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Oct 07 2011
Mark Twain, probably

The Shoulders of Giants

The Shoulders of Giants

Dana Horn, writing in Science about Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who discovered that the Sun was made mostly of hydrogen — but is not given proper credit.

Since her death in 1979, the woman who discovered what the universe is made of has not so much as received a memorial plaque. Her newspaper obituaries do not mention her greatest discovery. Even today, when it has become fashionable for historians to highlight the accomplishments of great female scientists, other astronomers are given precedence, or her name is listed as merely one of many. But there is no need to visit an Astronomy Hall of Fame to see how faint the memory of Payne-Gaposchkin has become. A glance at any elementary physical science textbook will do the trick. Every high school student knows that Isaac Newton discovered gravity, that Charles Darwin discovered evolution, and that Albert Einstein discovered the relativity of time. But when it comes to the composition of our universe, the textbooks simply say that the most abundant atom in the universe is hydrogen. And no one ever wonders how we know.

Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.

(Via Aaron Diaz.)

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Sep 28 2011
Mark Twain, probably

HERE IS A VIDEO SHOWING WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DROP A SLINKY

I HAVE A SLINKY AND HAVE TRIED THIS IN REAL LIFE

COLIN IS HERE AND HE WITNESSED IT

WHAT THE FUCK

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Sep 25 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Tiny neutrinos may have broken cosmic speed limit

Tiny neutrinos may have broken cosmic speed limit

Dennis Overbye, NY Times:

The physics world is abuzz with news that a group of European physicists plans to announce Friday that it has clocked a burst of subatomic particles known as neutrinos breaking the cosmic speed limit — the speed of light — that was set by Albert Einstein in 1905.

If true, it is a result that would change the world. But that “if” is enormous.

Even before the European physicists had presented their results — in a paper that appeared on the physics Web site arXiv.org on Thursday night and in a seminar at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, on Friday — a chorus of physicists had risen up on blogs and elsewhere arguing that it was way too soon to give up on Einstein and that there was probably some experimental error. Incredible claims require incredible evidence.

Incredible. I love the unflappable attitude of this scientist:

John Learned, a neutrino astronomer at the University of Hawaii, said that if the results of the Opera researchers turned out to be true, it could be the first hint that neutrinos can take a shortcut through space, through extra dimensions. Joe Lykken of Fermilab said, “Special relativity only holds in flat space, so if there is a warped fifth dimension, it is possible that on other slices of it, the speed of light is different.”

“Oh, one of the basic tenants of the last 100 years of physics might be wrong? Well… what if we invert the polarity… it just might work!”

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Sep 24 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our minds

Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our minds

Yasmin Anwar, UC Berkeley:

Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models, UC Berkeley researchers have succeeded in decoding and reconstructing people’s dynamic visual experiences – in this case, watching Hollywood movie trailers.

As yet, the technology can only reconstruct movie clips people have already viewed. However, the breakthrough paves the way for reproducing the movies inside our heads that no one else sees, such as dreams and memories, according to researchers.

Holy Toledo. Do not miss the video demonstrating their work. Really amazing stuff.

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Sep 22 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Here’s some science-y looking guy dropping a cannonball in a vat of mercury for the BBC apparently.

Where the hell did he get a vat of mercury? Who cares. Watch that fucker float.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Sep 20 2011
Mark Twain, probably

From the European Southern Observatory (ESO):

On Thursday 18 August, the sky above the Allgäu Public Observatory in southwestern Bavaria was an amazing sight, with the night lit up by two very different phenomena: one an example of advanced technology, and the other of nature’s dramatic power.

As ESO tested the new Wendelstein laser guide star unit by shooting a powerful laser beam into the atmosphere, one of the region’s intense summer thunderstorms was approaching — a very visual demonstration of why ESO’s telescopes are in Chile, and not in Germany. Heavy grey clouds threw down bolts of lightning as Martin Kornmesser, visual artist for the ESO outreach department, took timelapse photographs of the test for ESOcast 34. With purely coincidental timing this photograph was snapped just as lightning flashed, resulting in a breathtaking image that looks like a scene from a science fiction movie. Although the storm was still far from the observatory, the lightning appears to clash with the laser beam in the sky.

Immediately made this my desktop picture.

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Sep 05 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Here’s Tim Rowett of Grand Illusions demonstrating Hurricane Balls.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Aug 16 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Victory for Science in Texas Public Schools

Victory for Science in Texas Public Schools

Texas Freedom Network:

As we told you late last month, the State Board of Education approved instructional materials in science that could be used in Texas public schools for the better part of the next decade. In all, the board approved materials from nine publishers. But in the case of one of those publishers, Holt McDougal, it did so on the condition that it make changes of so-called “errors” that were based on the objections of a well-known creationist who reviewed the materials. […]

Well, those changes are now in (click here to download a PDF) and so are the reviews. TFN, NCSE and other scientists have reviewed the changes and have found them to be in line with established, fact-based science.

Here’s the head-exploding part for the creationists. Not only does the final version of Holt not include creationist arguments against evolution, but they also include language explicitly affirming Darwin’s theories.

Go science.

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