Posts Tagged ‘science’
This video shows the July 16, 1969 launch of the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first humans on the moon. The camera was rolling at 500 frames per second, allowing the first 30 seconds of the launch to be slowed down into this 8-minute narrated video.
I don’t care what you say, this is freaky stuff.
James Dyson has reinvented a machine we never knew needed reinventing; a fan with no visible blades that he calls the Air Multiplier. Its key component is a hollow plastic hoop with an aerofoil cross section – like an aircraft wing bent into a circle. Set vertically on a pedestal, it contains a motor-driven “impeller” which forces air into the hollow rim of the hoop.
From there, air emerges through a slot that directs it over the hoop’s aerofoil surface. This generates low pressure towards the centre of the hoop, which in turn creates a steady draught by drawing the surrounding air through it. The strength of the draught can be varied by adjusting the speed of the impeller.
Original article posted on NewScientist.
A RIFLE capable of firing explosive bullets that can detonate within a metre of a target could let soldiers fire on snipers hiding in trenches, behind walls or inside buildings.
The US army has developed the XM25 rifle to give its troops an alternative to calling in artillery fire or air strikes when an enemy has taken cover and can’t be targeted by direct fire. “This is the first leap-ahead technology for troops that we’ve been able to develop and deploy,” says Douglas Tamilio, the army’s project manager for new weapons for soldiers. “This gives them another tool in their kitbag.”
The rifle’s gunsight uses a laser rangefinder to calculate the exact distance to the obstruction. The soldier can then add or subtract up to 3 metres from that distance to enable the bullets to clear the barrier and explode above or beside the target (see diagram).
Today seems to be the Day of Robots; here’s another article about the use of robots in war.
In this powerful talk at a TED conference, P.W. Singer shows how the widespread use of robots in war is changing the realities of combat. He shows us scenarios straight out of science fiction — that now may not be so fictitious.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Despite becoming increasingly lifelike in appearance, robots still have terrible body language.
But Bilge Mutlu and colleague’s team at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, is changing that with robots that “leak” non-verbal information through eye movements when interacting with humans. The eyes of a robot may not provide a window into its soul, but they can help humans guess the machine’s intentions.
Humans constantly give off non-verbal cues and interpret the signals of others – but without realising it at a conscious level, says Mutlu. The trembling hands of a public speaker betray their nerves even before a word is uttered, while poker players leak subtle signs such as eye flickers or twitches that can be used to spot bluffers.
But when faced with a robot all our interpretive skills are irrelevant. Robots leak no information, so it is virtually impossible to read their intentions, which makes them hard to get along with.
Mutlu’s team tested strategies to improve robot body language using a guessing game played by a human and a humanoid robot. The robot is programmed to choose one object from around a dozen resting on a table, without making a move to actually pick it up.
Original article on NewScientist.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,A robot scientist that can generate its own hypotheses and run experiments to test them has made its first real scientific discoveries.
Dubbed Adam, the robot is the handiwork of researchers at Aberystwyth University and the University of Cambridge in the UK. All by itself it discovered new functions for a number of genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, aka brewer’s yeast.
Adam, which actually consists of a small roomful of lab equipment, has four personal computers that act as a brain, and possesses robot arms, cameras, liquid handlers, incubators and other equipment. The team gave the robot a freezer containing a library of thousands of mutant strains of yeast with individual genes deleted. It was also equipped with a database containing information about yeast genes, enzymes, and metabolism, and a supply of hundreds of metabolites.
To discover which genes coded for which enzymes, Adam cultured a mutant yeast with a certain gene knocked out, and monitored how well the mutant grew without a particular metabolite. If the strain grew poorly without the metabolite, Adam learned something about the function of the knocked out gene. The robot could carry out more than 1000 of these experiments a day.
In all, Adam formulated and tested 20 hypotheses about genes coding for 13 enzymes. Twelve hypotheses were confirmed. For instance, Adam correctly hypothesised that three genes it identified encode an enzyme important in producing the amino acid lysine. The researchers confirmed Adam’s work with their own experiments.
The team is now working on a new robot, called Eve, which will search for new drugs.
Read the entire article on NewScientist.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Optical Brain Imaging Decodes Preference With 80 Percent Accuracy.
ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2009) — Researchers at Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital have developed a technique that uses infrared light brain imaging to decode preference – with the goal of ultimately opening the world of choice to children who can’t speak or move.
New Scientist listed the top 7 alternative energy sources in an article saying that…
The US could replace all its cars and trucks with electric cars powered by wind turbines taking up less than 3 square kilometres – in theory, at least. That’s the conclusion of a detailed study ranking 11 types of non-fossil fuels according to their total ecological footprint and their benefit to human health.
The study, carried out by Mark Jacobson of the atmosphere and energy programme at Stanford University, found wind power to be by far the most desirable source of energy. Biofuels from corn and plant waste came right at the bottom of the list, along with nuclear power and “clean” coal.
Watch a video of Jacobson discussing his findings.
The energy sources that Jacobson found most promising were, in descending order:
- Wind
- Concentrated solar power (mirrors heating a tower of water)
- Geothermal energy
- Tidal energy
- Solar panels
- Wave energy
- Hydroelectric dams
Read the rest of this article which also addresses biofuel concerns and current focused efforts.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,A new study from the National Academy of Sciences outlines grim possibilities on Earth for a worst-case scenario solar storm.
Damage to power grids and other communications systems could be catastrophic, the scientists conclude, with effects leading to a potential loss of governmental control of the situation.
The prediction is based in part on major solar storm in 1859 caused telegraph wires to short out in the United States and Europe, igniting widespread fires.
It was perhaps the worst in the past 200 years, according to the new study, and with the advent of modern power grids and satellites, much more is at risk.
“A contemporary repetition of the [1859] event would cause significantly more extensive (and possibly catastrophic) social and economic disruptions,” the researchers conclude.
Read the entire article on FOXNews.
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